Malabo, 24 December, 2022 / 8:40 pm (ACI Africa).
Members of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) in Equatorial Guinea are offering formal education and other “skills for stable employment” to young mothers in the Central African nation.
In a Tuesday, November 22 report, SDB officials say the “Vocational Training for Young Mothers in Malabo" program running at the Salesian institution in the capital of Equatorial Guinea is important because the country's laws prohibit young mothers from attending school.
“The program caters to young women who had to drop out of school early because of pregnancies, those who were forced out of the home by their parents or those with children who are not recognized by their fathers,” SDB officials say.
“This program is particularly important because laws in Malabo prevent pregnant young women and young mothers from attending school,” they say, adding that the 30 young mothers, among them those who are pregnant, have enrolled in the program.
SDB officials say that without the education, the young women “would remain in a system that stigmatizes and punishes them while restricting them from gaining the skills for stable employment.”