Nearly 365 teenage girls give birth in South Africa every day, with 10 of those daily births to moms younger than 15.
High teen pregnancy rates hinder development as many girls drop out of school, later struggle to find a job and stay poor a difficult cycle to break.
Can better sex education, easier access to contraceptives and training health workers to help teens before they get pregnant, turn the trend?
We unpack the numbers.
In todays newsletter , Anna-Maria van Niekerk and Linda Pretorius look into South Africas high rates of teen pregnancy. Sign up today .
December holidays started badly for Ainsley Robinson. At 14, she wanted to hang out with friends; instead she was stuck helping her mother in their tiny kitchen in their cramped zinc shack in Hopetown in the Northern Cape , about 120km from Kimberley.
Whats more, there was tension between Robinson and her mom over her new boyfriend an 18-year-old boy who was already out of school.
As they chopped vegetables for dinner, Robinsons mom watched her closely. Her daughters body had changed, she noticed. Her breasts looked swollen.
Determined to find out what was going on, she took her daughter to the local clinic the next day, where nurses confirmed that Robinson was three months pregnant.
