Government applauds youths
Government has applauded young people for being proactive and solution oriented during a time when the world is faced with a myriad of challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Co-ordinator for the National Response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Agnes Mahomva made the remarks in a keynote address during the first ever Virtual National Students’ Conference (VNSC) on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) organised by the Students and Youth Working on reproductive Health Action Team (SAYWHAT) on Thursday last week.
“I am told the theme is ‘Safeguarding adolescent and youth SRH rights in the era of emergencies’, I thought indeed, here we are, we have the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. Most of us will remember when it started we thought well, it was going to end there in China but it became a pandemic and we are looking at what we can do as a nation.
“I am happy that the youth have jumped in. So this theme brings to the fore some of the concerns of the youth which should not be overlooked and again I want to keep emphasising that this should not be overlooked by the leadership – government, but indeed the youth themselves should not ask others to lead but should be leading and of cause continuing to ask questions, participating in a holistic fashion, taking the bull by its horns,” she said.
Speaking during the same event, United Nations – Office of the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) Humanitarian Coordination Specialist Nyasha Mazango highlighted the changes that Covid-19 had brought and how the UN Agencies had been working on alleviating the humanitarian situation.
“Since March, we have noted a lot of negative developments to Zimbabweans and we have a declining demand and access to SRH services.
“The lockdown measures worsened the national economic status regardless of the problems that had already been existing prior to Covid-19 which caught everyone unaware,” she said.
“As OCHA we advocate the right to service access, and we have to ensure that the SRHR of young people are maintained. We also ensure that there is adequate information and participation of young people. We have also identified and advocated for specific needs for key populations and young people have emerged to be one of the key populations.”
SAYWHAT Executive Director, Jimmy Wilford said this year’s theme was a call to action for all stakeholders to be responsive, safeguarding youth SRH rights in a time when Zimbabwe is constantly facing various forms of emergencies that have had serious negative impact on service delivery to young people.
“Through this theme, the conference sought to bring to the attention of policy makers the impact of Covid-19 to young people’s sexual and reproductive health with the hope of securing their commitments and promoting government agility in dealing with the negative impact of the pandemic to youth SRH,” he said.
“Furthermore, this year’s theme sought to redirect and reprioritise SRH conversations to adopt and adapt to the new norm created by Covid-19 in particular greater attention being placed on various recovery models which will allow students and young people to continue with daily activities free from SRH infirmities.”
Wilford said the Virtual National Students’ Conference - which was held on the 16th and 17th of December - was a direct response to the regulations and restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
All conference resolutions resonated around a general agreement that there is need to safeguard SRH and Gender Based Violence gains achieved prior to Covid-19.