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Cletus Mushanawani Mashonaland Central Bureau
CHILD marriages are rampant in Mashonaland Central Province, while the usage of morning-after pills has increased in Bindura, especially after weekends and public holidays. The increase on the use of morning-after pills has been attributed to the increase of students being enrolled at the town’s two universities, Bindura University of Science Education and Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University.

This has prompted the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council to come up with a number of intervention measures, among them an advocacy meeting with tertiary institutions scheduled for next month.

In an interview last week, ZNFPC Mashonaland Central provincial manager, Mr Nemisious Shoniwa, said the advocacy meeting was aimed at addressing issues of adolescent sexually reproductive health service provisions in tertiary institutions.

He said an increase in STIs and HIV infections among tertiary students was worrisome in the province, as some of them were being lured into promiscuous behaviour by the love of money.

“We have realised that vocational training centres in the province do not have clinics and some of their students have no access to condoms, HIV testing and counselling,” said Mr Shoniwa.

“Mashonaland Central is endowed with a lot of gold deposits, especially along the Mazowe River, stretching from Mazowe, Bindura, Shamva, Rushinga and Centenary. Some students are being lured into unprotected sex by gold panners who spent recklessly. Not only tertiary students are affected, even young girls are forced into early marriages because of the love of money.”

The National Adolescent Fertility Study’s technical report of 2016 shows that Mashonaland Central has the highest number of teenage (15-19 years) pregnancy at 28,1 percent.

“Following the publication of the National Adolescent Fertility Study’s technical report, we have been doing a number of awareness campaigns, especially in districts like Mbire, Mt Darwin and Rushinga, where the problem is rampant,” said Mr Shoniwa.

“We have come to realise that some of these problems are being fuelled by traditional and religious beliefs. Some traditional leaders tend to denounce the practice in public, yet they condone it. Some of them preside over these issues at their traditional courts, but do not condone the practice.”

Mr Shoniwa said during their awareness campaigns, some of the victims were giving touching testimonies of lost opportunities in life due to early marriages.

“In Rushinga, we were encouraged to target secondary school-going girls as they are the most affected,” he said. “We are educating them on reproductive health and their rights as the girl-child. The response is overwhelming and we will continue partnering with other stakeholders to ensure that teenage pregnancy is reduced from 24 percent to 12 percent by 2020.”

ZNFPC’s provincial marketing and communications officer, Mr Percival Kushure said: “There is need to interface with all stakeholders and address the issues of child marriages and adolescent sexual reproductive health. The issue needs a multi-sectoral approach from leaders to those affected by this vice. We want to see a reduction in child marriages and STI infections in the province.”

Mr Kushure expressed concern over the low condom uptake among tertiary students.