Many people’s lives have been altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Grace’s life will never be the same: she is now a teenage mother.
Like so many young women from rural areas and ultra-poor households, seven months of school shutdowns in Malawi meant so much more than a switch to home learning, or even a temporary pause to Grace’s education. It meant she was cut off from the protective network of teachers and other community leaders who look out for her and notice when things aren’t right.
It meant she no longer received school meals, which filled the gap that her family wasn’t able to afford. It meant with every day, her learning was pushed further and further behind until the gap was simply too much.
“School was closed, and I had nothing else to do,” says Grace. “Being in a relationship with a boy seemed like a good idea.”
At the age of just 15, Grace fell pregnant to a boy, who was still a high school student himself.