motherhood in chidhood
YOUNG KINSHIP
by Priscilla Mora Flores
Every 17 hours a girl under 14 years old delivers a baby in Costa Rica. When a child becomes responsible of a child our whole society faces risks of mortality, poverty cycles, lost childhoods, school desertion, recurring early pregnancies in future generations and abuse and rape in many cases. In a country where 50 of every 100 pregnant women did not planned or desired their pregnancy, Costa Rican people are currently facing a controversial debate about sexual education in schools. Costa Rica is a catholic country by constitution, and here conservatives and progressive people are debating the new subject "Education for Affectivity and Sexuality “ recently introduced by the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) in the scholar program to take action on 2018. Also in a recently approved law, Costa Rica sets now jail penalty for having sex with under 18 years old teenagers, when there exists an age gap from 5 and more years between both and prohibits for the first time marriage before 18 years old.
 
Inspired by short visits with teenager mothers that I was commissioned to photograph by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the past, it is the will of this documentary photography project to divulge this new law and advocate for the sexual education as a human right. An in depth photography project, interviewing and exploring motherhood in childhood with teenager girls under 18 tears old from Costa Rica was produced during this course.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. Wesley Sánchez Morales is a 15 year old girl with 41 weeks of gestation. She lives in the rural village of La Lajosa in Santa Cecilia de La Cruz, Guanacaste. She lives with her mother Marjorie, who is a single mom raising 5 children, the oldest has 16 and the youngest is 5 years old. When Marjorie was sick of depression, the 5 kids were brought to government’s foster homes. Wesley, at the age of 12, was in charge of taking care of her 3 young sisters. She’s always been her mother’s support in raising the family. In Latin America it is common that older girls in families are delegate with the responsibility of raising their little brothers and sisters. They start losing their childhood at young ages.
Wesley Sánchez Morales travelled 100km to the nearest town, La Cruz, to be able to buy a pharmacy pregnancy test. She was 14 years old. The test was positive, she was going to be a mom. Miguel, the baby’s father, and Wesley go together to School. They are currently coursing 1st year of High School in CINDEA of Upala.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. Wesley’s great grandmother feels her great great granddaughter that is soon to be born. Generation gaps between women narrow when early pregnancies occur. The average age of Costa Rican youth for a first sexual encounter has shifted from 16-18 to 13-15 years old, according to National Children’s Hospital Research in 2015. That is why the use of long-term contraceptives are being recommended by the World Health Organisation and UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population) in teenagers.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. La Cruz de Guanacaste is the city with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Costa Rica according to the last national census realised on year 2011. Guanacaste is the third province with highest number of pregnant adolescents, following Limón in the first place and Puntarenas in the second place. All this are coast regions. “Teenage pregnancy is a Public Health issue the government is in debt with our society. 11 000 girls a year are having non planned pregnancies and have to treat each case individually ” Doctor Rita Peralta said on a Nacion.com interview.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. In the words of Ana Helena ChacĂłn, Vice President of the Republic and women social activist: “A scourge of Latin America and the whole world has been put on the table, which is early pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies, pregnancy in girls and pregnancy in adolescents. This means that throughout the world there is a feminization of poverty and that these early pregnancies come to perpetuate women in this perverse cycle of poverty, where they can not transform their own lives than the lives of their mothers and their grandmothers "
Costa Rica, Provincia de Limรณn, Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Camino a Isla Cohen. Agosto 2017. Cabecar indigenous territory in Valle La Estrella, Limรณn Province has a declaration of sanitary emergency in Costa Rica since December 2015. Near 5000 people live in this region and have no access no clean water, which causes sickness and high mortality rates among the community. Their main need is access to drinking water suitable for human consumption. The need to open up road infrastructures in difficult-to-access communities is also main issue hindering their development opportunities. Guadalupe Lopez Morales
Costa Rica, Provincia de Limรณn, Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Boca Cohen Julio 2017. Ester, 14 years old, lives in Isla Cohen, a community where the access is through the jungle and you have to cross the river Tayni every time you want to visit Boca Cohen, a small community with two basic grocery little rural shops. Ester is now on a crucial age, when most of her peers already started sexual activity and teenage pregnancies are common. Culturally the cabecar indigenous woman has been united to men, pregnant and considered adults since they are 11 and 12 years.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. Women that experience their first pregnancy at their 25 years of life in general experience a much superior quality of life than her peers that have early pregnancies, according to Juan DĂaz, UNFPA consultant in Costa Rica. According to UNFPA’s World Population Report of 2016, In Latin America 19% of teenager girls are married or living in free union. Young girls are more vulnerable to suffer violence, abuse, sexual harassment, early and non planned pregnancies, abortions, STDs and risk of mortality.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Limón. Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Boca Cohen Julio 2017. Heyda Morales Fernandez pregnancy came when she was 13 years old. When asked what is the part she embraces more of being a mother, after a long silence she answers: “I cannot say anything, I got pregnant without wanting to”. And the most difficult part? - I asked, “He gets sick frequently” she says, and she is the only one looking after the baby, and that makes it very hard.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Limรณn, Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Camino a Isla Cohen. Agosto 2017. Indigenous represent 2.4% of the Costa Rican population. There are 63.876 according to the last National Census of 2011, of people excluded politically, socially and economically from the rest of the territory, making them a very vulnerable segment. This can be shown in their lack of basic services, frequent health issues and the extreme poverty in which many are immerse.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. Marjorie, Wesley’s mother, doesn’t understand why se always attracts men that hurt her. The whole family lives in a borrowed house, of her only boy’s father. She is forced to maintain casual relationships with him since he owns the house. She wishes that someday she will have her own house, her freedom. Wesley’s (15) father committed suicide when Wesley was gestating in her mothers womb. Months before being pregnant, Wesley tried to commit suicide. Doctors prescribed some pills she never took.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. “When I get depressed” Marjorie says, “I don’t want to get out of bed, so I don’t take care of my girls”. This is why PANI (National Children’s Office that veils for their protection) sent her 5 children to foster homes for 1 year. She did not know that depression can be a medicated condition. After her first birth, her firstborn Wesley, she had postpartum depression without knowing it. She could spend 15 days without cleaning herself, the house, without cooking or looking after her baby while having constant negative thoughts. Fluoxetina, Epival, and sometimes drops of Dramal, are everyday with Marjorie. She is afraid her daughter Wesley inherits her same sickness.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. Gresley first day at her home, third day of her life. Wesley, 15 years old, the new mom, was waiting for 3 days to see Miguel, 17 years old and father of the baby. Since he is a minor, the hospital did not allowed the young father to be at the birth of her daughter, or to visit them while hospitalisation. “Wes now convinced me, I saw her like a chicken, but she was very brave� says Miguel.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Limรณn, Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Boca Cohen. Julio 2017. I met Heyda Morales Fernandez, 15 year old, at the Annual Health Fair organised by the Ministry of Health in Boca Cohen. She walked for hours and crossed a river at her waist level, walking with her son Erison Morales Fernandez, 9 months old, her sister Shirley, 9 years old and her 5 year old brother Elmer. Erison, her baby was suffering from difficulty of breathing, headaches and constantly crying a lot. In the picture, the doctor is giving medical consultation during the Health Fair inside a school classroom in Boca Cohen, the only Cabecar town in the Tayni region with electricity.
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Costa Rica, Provincia de Limรณn, Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Isla Cohen. Agosto 2017. At her young age, Heyda Morales Fernandez, 15 years old, is her family head, in charge of her son, sister and brother. They live in a small shanty house of 1 room, with no access of water, electricity or road. They cook with wood and fire on the floor, and sleep together in here (the picture shows the bed they share).
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. This is the first time Miguel, 17 years old, gets to meet her daughter in person. He first met her through a cell phone screen. Because of his age, Liberia’s Hospital did not allowed him his right of being in her daughter’s birth. Wesley, 15 years old was hoping to get out of the hospital to see her boyfriend Miguel. 2 months later Wesley’s mother had to put a restriction order to Miguel from Wesley and their baby. He hit Wesley and bit her face.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Limón, Cabecar Indigenous Territory Tayni in Valle La Estrella. Boca Cohen. Julio 2017. Padrinos Fraternos is on Organisation that brings donations one day a year to Cabecar communities in Valle La Estrella. People agglomerate to get whatever they give them, from a t-shirt, high heels or a pan. Guadalupe Lopez Morales, a community leader from the ADI (Asociación de Desarrollo Indígena) that instead of donations, the best way to help the community, and specially the young girls, is to give workshops for young girls that show them diverse interests in life, self- esteem and to identify violent behaviours and prevent them. Guadalupe’s work is to protect the rights from women and old age members of the indigenous community . Because of this “I have gained some enemies, but I don’t mind that the male get angry with me, if I don’t do my work, nobody else will do it, and things will never change”. The main problems in the community for her are alcoholism, unplanned pregnancies, irresponsable men that abandon women with their children. For example, a High School male teacher has evaded his responsibility for 3 births from teenagers students. “Women are being hit, abused with words and being abandoned… I don’t like that… Women are starting to learn to defend themselves, but there is still a long way to go”.
Costa Rica, Provincia de San JosĂŠ, Hatillo 6. Agosto 2017. In order to prevent teenage pregnancies, violence against women and in general, improper relationships (relationships between adults and underaged teens based on control and abuse by the adult), responsable maternities and paternities and new approaches to masculinity, Costa Rican government decided to implement "Education for Affectivity and Sexuality “ new signature at High Schools. The aim is to give young people their right to practice a safe sexuality, informed and with responsibility.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Santa Cecilia de La Cruz. Julio 2017. According to UNFPA’s World Population Report of 2016, 16 millions of girls between the 6 and 11 years of age will never go to school, that number doubles the boys statistic.
Costa Rica, Provincia de Guanacaste, Liberia. Hospital Enrique Baltodano. Julio 2017. Inside the Hospital’s maternity room, that is mixed with adults and teenager moms, women talk out loud about their previous painful births, they laugh of the girls that star crying or shouting of pain, or you can hear the story of how a sister’s lady gave birth the way you should… kneeling to god.
Gresley Dariana Sánchez was born 25th o f J u l y, 2 0 1 7 . H e r 3 4 y e a r o l d grandmother was beside her. Her mother Wesley, 15 year old, says: “When I pushed the last time I bitted my hand strongly, I thought I was not going to be able to give birth, and I did”.
Produced for the Documentary Photography Course Amsterdam - Costa Rica 2017