Women and Youth for Social Justice
The Campaign! (WYSJ)
Promotion of Equal Rights & Social Justice for Women, Young People and the Vulnerable

Reformed Youth

Roselyne Nyambura is less than 25 years old. At her age, Rose has undergone a lot of life challenges. She is a mother of a 7 years old girl whom she conceived while in school. She was forced out of school due to unplanned pregnancy. Due to lack of economic empowerment and the need to provide for her baby and to meet her other personal needs, Rose decided to engage in heavy drug and alcohol consumption, together with peddling of drugs within and out of the Kibagare informal settlement where she lives in with her mother and grandmother.

Rose gave in to pressure from the father of her daughter and moved in with him as a wife. Throughout the cohabitating lifestyle, she underwent a lot of gender based violence and trauma. They both abused drugs with the “husband”. This continuous fight landed Rose to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Nairobi Women Hospital when the husband poured hot water on her chest.

Rose is one of the young women under YWCAA’s marginalized young women & girls program. She has undergone an immense transformation since YWCAA met her in 2015. She has reformed from taking drugs as well as peddling, she is a peer educator on HIV/AIDS and gender based violence and continues to change lives of many young women and girls in her community. Rose requires support in order to establish her own business. She has trained as a beautician under the YWCAA’s young women & girls economic empowerment program in partnership with the African Women Development Fund (AWDF). She is a talented orator and an actress too.