Whether the title of this blog post sounds hypothetical or
not, the right answer lies in the question itself; should we allow young people
to access family planning methods and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) or
the other option of denying them access and let them get Sexually Transmitted
Infections (STIs) and fall pregnant?
In the name of what is loosely called ‘protecting the moral
fabric’; children out there are having their own children, young people are
dropping out of school and dying due to early pregnancies, AIDS and some more
are becoming sterile due
to STIs and unsafe abortions.
By extension, unsafe
abortions are also claiming many lives of young girls every year. Furthermore,
it is an irrefutable fact that obstetric fistula is a nightmare that await
young pregnant girls in the maternity wings of our clinics.
The unemployment rate of young people in Malawi is astonishingly
high. However, does anyone know that some of these unemployed youths are
supposed to be in school? What drives them into the labour market is the fact that
they impregnated or got pregnant then dropped out of school and found
themselves in streets. From sun rise till sun set, they are moving up and down
looking for ways of earning an income to support their babies who were born by
chance and not by choice.
A careful analysis of the aforementioned problematic issues
pertaining to sexual reproductive health of young people will inform you that
each individual consequence also has its accompanying pitiful aftermaths. There
has to be an answer to such challenges.
The advantages of abstinence from sex have, for so long,
been preached but nothing has really changed. Sexually active young people are
still facing the consequences of unsafe sex. Of course, there are some young
people who are practicing abstinence but at the same time, a good number of
them are indulging in unprotected sex and they are constantly challenged by the
hectic outcomes.
The world in general
and Malawi in particular, should not be in such a fix where by it is
losing the potential that is in otherwise bright young people due to lack of
comprehensive sexuality education and lack of access to family planning methods
that can protect them from all this. Something has to be done because it shows
that we need to do our mathematics and get our calculations right.
Before I stop punching the buttons, I would like to state
the factor that prompted me to write this blog. A Primary School Education Advisor
somewhere in Chiradzulu district told me and my colleagues during an interface
meeting that a total number of six girls did not sit for their Primary School
leaving certificate because they were pregnant. He added that such cases are a
usual feature in many primary schools and his facial expression said, ‘enough
is enough, something has to be done to avoid such cumbersome scenarios’.
Sadly still, he further stated that such children do not go
back to school after delivery as they are burdened with the task of raising
their children, a thing which is not easy more especially to a girl who is
below the age of 15.
I regret the fact that they had had an unprotected sex. Who
knows where their academic journey could have taken them to? Nonetheless, all
is not lost, such young girls and I understand there are a lot more others out
there, need support and encouragement for them to go back to school and revive
their dreams.
All this is happening in a society where the elders and the
society at large are saying comprehensive sexuality education is a taboo
subject that should not be offered to the youths. The same elders wear brave faces and say
family planning methods are not for the youth. They say this amidst cases of
early pregnancies and they fully know that young people of today will grow and
have families of their own in the near future. So! Why not allow them to plan
for that now?
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