According to CEOAFRICA.com findings from sources in Tanzania, more than 55,000 Tanzanian school over the last decades for being pregnant, a feat which has perpetuated the level of poverty.

The Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR) said from the ages of 11, schoolgirls are forced to undergo humiliating and painful pregnancy tests as often as once in a month, and if findings revealed that they are pregnant, they will be expelled immediately.

One of the officials of the CRR, Evelyne Opondo said,” Girls are expelled from school regardless of how they get pregnant. When you expel them from school, you deny them that chance of education. You confine them to that circle of poverty, they will remain poor and their children will be poor most likely”.

Following their expulsion, most of them face widespread stigma, the possibility of being forced into marriage and the challenge of providing for themselves and their babies. Some wealthier families are able to send their daughters to private schools but majority end up looking for casual work. Many of them work part-time in hotels or restaurants or sell food on the streets. Several were thrown out by their families and one ended homeless.