Pandemic fuels surge in teen pregnancies

SIHLE Ndlovu shakes her head in despair as her hand traces the contours of her bulging stomach.

At just 20, Ndlovu, a mother of two, is six months pregnant.

Hers is an unwanted pregnancy; a result of failure to access sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“I was using birth control pills but I could not replenish my supplies after the lockdowns were introduced,” Ndlovu who hails from Guyu, Gwanda district, said.

“We would at times get SRHS from Population Services International (PSI) who would occasionally visit our area…these services were stopped when lockdowns were introduced.”

As the pandemic wreaked havoc across the world, Zimbabwe like many other countries responded by imposing lockdowns, curtailing access to contraceptive and menstrual health supplies as well as comprehensive sex education.

Notably, the Health and Child Care ministry and development partners established youth-friendly corners at health facilities to make SRHS which were not available during the lockdowns more accessible.

Buwalo Matilikilo Trust (BMT) director, Anna Mandizha-Ncube said the pandemic reversed gains made towards ensuring access to SRHS.

“Covid-19 greatly negatively impacted SRHS accessibility,” Mandizha-Ncube said

The BMT has been running the social accountability monitoring component of SRHS.

“Covid-19 also posed a serious threat to the social accountability Monitoring component of SRHS,” Mandizha-Ncube said.

“Young women, adolescents and teenage mothers were seriously affected and made even more vulnerable because of the inability to free movement and access to these services at health facilities during the lockdowns.

Young people who spoke to The Citizen Bulletin said they had challenges in accessing SRHS including testing and treatment for STIs as well as contraception.

“As youths we could not easily access condoms for free as it was the norm,” 20 year-old Micah Nyathi said.

“We could not afford to buy the condoms at the shops, forcing us to engage in unprotected sex.”

The government says nearly 5,000 teenage girls became pregnant in January and February and about 1,800 entered early marriages during the same period in 2021, resulting in school dropouts.

The United Nations Population Fund says Covid-19 restrictions delayed interventions against child marriage and caused a longlasting economic downturn that will push more families into poverty, which is a key driver of child marriages.

Mandizha-Ncube said there were still existing gaps when it comes to SRHS to prevent unwanted and teenage pregnancies.

“There is a need for the alignment of laws with regards to who can access which services and at what age,” she said.

There is a raging debate on whether condoms should be distributed in schools.

However, the Health and Child care ministry saud government will not distribute condoms in schools but will pursue other HIV intervention strategies.

Mandizha-Ncube added: “Most rural health facilities lack the technological benefits enjoyed by urban or peri-urban health centres and to make it worse there is also a lack of political will by all actors involved to ensure adequate and easy access to SRHS.”

*This article was originally published by a non-profit news organisation that produces hard hitting hyperlocal reporting and analysis for south western region of Matabeleland.