Let’s fight to stem teen pregnancies
NO SOONER had I alighted from my vehicle after parking on my way from work one evening than a neighbour came shouting for help. Confusion was written in block capitals on the woman’s face that I had to wait for her to be composed before I could decipher the right kind of assistance she required.
“I need to take my daughter to hospital. She has taken an unknown pesticide because the boy who impregnated her is denying paternity. He also assaulted her,” she told me before rushing back into her yard.
The woman neither had cash for petrol nor someone older to lend her a hand, leaving me without an option but to yield to her request.
But the woman is not the only one in this predicament. It has become a national problem.
If one looks north, east, west and south, one is certain to see a pregnant young girl in the twinkling of an eye.
This comes amid revelations that the country recorded close to 350 000 pregnancies among girls between the ages of 10 and 19 in the past three years.
United Nations Population Fund adolescent sexual reproductive health specialist Blessing Nyagumbo recently said the country recorded a rise in pregnancies among girls and teenagers between 2019 and 2022.
“Between 2019 and 2022, there were about 1,7 million pregnancies recorded in Zimbabwe and out of that, 21 percent happened among adolescents that are between the ages of 10 and 19 years and that translates to around 350 000 teen pregnancies. That tells you how devastating the rate of teenage pregnancies in Zimbabwe is,” he said.
Sexual reproductive health in schools,
Nyagumbo said, had been identified as key in raising awareness and subsequently reducing cases of sexual exploitation of minors.
Gentle reader, the rate at which children are falling pregnant bids on everyone to take bold steps to stop the worrying trend.
“Kwakaipa kulez. Kamudhoni kepamba pandinogara kakamitiswa, apa kanherera zvekuti unobva watoona kuti nyika yoenda kumawere,” a drinking partner of mine recently said.
A workmate also shared a similar story. “I was looking after my wife’s orphaned niece, only for her to come one day, complaining of stomach pains. We scrounged around for money to take her to the doctor and we were told she was three months pregnant. My heart sank when the doctor broke the news but there is nothing we could do because yadeuka-yadeuka mvura haidyorerwe,” the bloke said while throwing her hands about in disgust.
A city florist, Sandra Ngwaru, chipped in, saying: “When living with children these days, you are supposed to watch each and every step they make like a hawk because the moment you relax, you are sure to be given an extra responsibility. Hatuchanzwa twana twacho.”
Gentle reader, if you thought the issue of teenage pregnancies disappeared with the Covid-19 era, where children misbehaved during the lockdowns, then you are in for a huge surprise.
There is just something wrong in the way children are behaving that needs to be corrected with haste.
It is in this vein that this writer welcomes the Government directive that compels children who would have completed their Grade 7 examinations to continue in school. A stitch in time saves nine. Inotambika mughetto.
◆