First Lady calls for teamwork

FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has called upon all relevant ministries to co-ordinate and come up with solutions to reproductive health issues especially for schoolchildren.

She said this yesterday during a basic life-saving skills training programme at State House in Harare attended by representatives from different ministries, departments and organisations.

The stakeholders have been attending a week-long basic life-saving skills training programme which is focusing on reproductive health and maternal mortality.

The First Lady said efforts towards dissemination of health education in rural areas should be prioritised and raised concern over the high rate of child marriages in Mashonaland Central.

“There is need for ministries to link and work together in addressing issues concerning reproductive health and children,” she said.

In an interview on the sidelines of the training, Ministry of Health and Child Care director for reproductive health Mrs Margaret Nyandoro said it was important that ministries increase their co-ordination and work together to find solutions to reproductive health issues.

“No one ministry or department can solve the problem of reproductive health alone. We need to work as a team. Yes, there is co-ordination out there and we are talking to each other but there is room for improvement. From here, we will go to our principals and explain what has transpired and come up with deliberations on issues of reproductive health,” she said.

Mrs Nyandoro expressed concern over the increase in teenage pregnancies.

“Very young girls are getting pregnant. If you go to our mothers’ waiting rooms, we have 13- and 14-year-olds. These are children who should be in school. Their bodies are not ready for child birth. They are straining their bodies and they may die and their babies may also die. This is unnecessary when we have so many things we can do to curb this,” she said.

Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Harare deputy director in charge of children welfare in primary schools Mrs Grace Maposa said her ministry had a structure to protect children from abuse and also to encourage them to report perpetrators.

“We have a structure which looks at the welfare of our learners at the school, district and provincial levels. Abused children are encouraged to disclose to their teacher, school head, peers or guidance and counselling teacher or any adult,” she said.

Mrs Maposa said that the challenge was that some children were afraid of disclosing cases of abuse to their teachers while in some cases relatives tried to cover up the cases.

“The school will take the necessary steps to engage other stakeholders such as social welfare, police and parents. The challenges are that the child may not feel free to disclose his or her problems to the teachers.

“In some cases, the parents or relatives could be the perpetrator and when they get involved, they will try to cover up. When the cases are taken to the courts, it may take long for the perpetrator to be arrested and convicted,” she said.