Is the abstinence message in sex education working?

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Rumbidzai Ngwenya
A 17-year-old girl of Dhizira Village under Chief Chingoma in Mberengwa was recently arrested for killing her three-week old baby.

As horrific as it may sound, she smashed the baby against a rock and crushed her to death with stones.

She later went on to make a false report to the police that her child had been kidnapped by unknown people.

After investigations it was later revealed that she had murdered the baby.

The teenage girl is also a mother to a two-year-old baby, meaning she had a first child when she was only 15.

The reason behind the murder is unknown.

An innocent soul was killed by someone who should have protected her.

This should raise alarm.

Tales of teenagers who fall pregnant, drop out of school and or at times are forced into marriage abound in Zimbabwe.

Children are the future, but what does that mean if incidences like this persist?

It is a situation that needs to be addressed urgently.

According to the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC), Mashonaland Central Province tops the list of teenage pregnancies at 31 percent, Matabeleland South Province is second with 30 percent, followed Manicaland Province (28 percent) while Matabeleland North has 26 percent.

Mashonaland East Province has 25 percent, Midlands 24 percent, Mashonaland West 20 percent, Masvingo Province 18 percent and Bulawayo Province 12 percent, with Harare Province at 10 percent.

These statistics also show that rural teenagers are more vulnerable when compared to urban.

In another report, about half of women who deliver at St Albert’s Mission Hospital in Centenary District (Mashonaland Central) are teenagers, increasing the number of caesarean-sections (C-section) conducted in the district.

Mutambara Mission Hospital in Chimanimani District (Manicaland) has also recorded a surge in teen pregnancies with 237 recorded since January this year.

The surge was attributed to illegal gold panners who come to the place from all over the country for the precious mineral.

The list is endless.

Teenage pregnancy has dominated the nation and there is no solution in sight.

Stories of young girls who are often faced with the predicament of parenthood at a tender age abound at a time when they themselves still need parental care.

These are sad stories, and every parent who has had her teenage daughter impregnated can relate to this. Yet parents do not want imagine something like that happening to their own.

The consequences of teenage pregnancy hit hard on society, parents and more on the girl child who seems to have everything to lose.

They often drop out of school and live in life-long poverty.

Most of them live with health complications from early child birth such as C-Sections.

For most of these girls all hope is lost.

Most never get back to school, let alone have a career.

Government is working towards achieving universal access to quality integrated family planning and contraceptive services to reduce unplanned pregnancies, especially among teenagers.

But these efforts are sometimes undermined by parents who deny their children open access to contraceptives.

Parents say giving teenagers contraceptives is like allowing them to indulge in sexual activities. Their jobs as parents is to protect the children.

Parents opted for the continuation of preaching the gospel of abstinence, which is the best ever there is.

Teenagers have to abstain from sexual activities until marriage.

But the gospel is clearly not being received by youngsters.

Analysis of data from the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey shows that more than 395 000 Zimbabweans aged 15-19 are currently sexually active.

On average, among adolescents who had sex before age 20, both adolescent girls and boys first have sexual intercourse at age 17.

So when a country has such a huge number of teenagers indulging in sex, having tried the abstinence talk which seemingly is not working, does society have to turn a blind eye and brace for the worst?

Researchers have shown that inaccessibility of contraceptives in adolescents has been the major reason for high teenage pregnancies.

The biggest obstacle seems to be a reluctance in African culture for parents to openly discuss sex with children – it is an adult game or it’s played according to the Bible. Many religions, cultures and almost every family condemn sex before marriage.

In such circumstances, the subject of sex is never openly discussed in both private and public set-ups, and that has dire consequences to society.

Thus teenagers avoid walking into clinics and pharmacies to buy contraceptives in fear of embarrassing themselves.

So unprotected sex becomes the only option.

Many believe that giving sexual advice and allowing adolescents free access to contraceptives is like giving them permission to indulge sex which is against cultural and religious values.

But the truth of the matter is that many adolescents are indulging in sexual activities. As much as society cannot come to terms with the matter and still preaches the gospel of abstinence, adolescents are not disengaging.

Both society and the Ministry of Primary Education need to work together to reduce the risks the youth are exposed to due to lack of sufficient information about safe sex.

It is up to society to choose whether to stay in denial or gear up and face the predicament that befalls the nation.

Yes, we cannot lose our values and morals to invasive cultures and we should never.

Yet our cultures are being diluted and it is unacceptable.

But the question still remains, what should we do as a country beyond talk of abstinence? If accessibility of contraceptives is off the list, surely there should be something.

Whatever it is, the future needs to be saved.

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