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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Health Buzz

Greek philosopher Diogenes once said: “The foundation of every state is the education of its youths.”

He could not have said it any better.

Access to education is one of the fundamental rights of any child, along with the rights to health, family life and protection from abuse and harm as espoused in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

These rights are supposed to enable children to develop in the best possible way. This way, they can take their rightful position in the development of their respective communities, countries and the world.

After all, young people make up more than 60 percent of the world’s population.

It should only be right that they be allowed to realise their full potential as they are the future.

But more often than not, young people have no say in a lot of things that involve them.

Adults get to decide if the child should go to school and which school. They decide if that child should visit a hospital when they are ill or a traditional healer, some even decide when the child should get married and to who.

Last week, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched the State of the World Population Report (SWOP) which stressed the importance of rights and choices for women and young girls to exercise their bodily autonomy.

Because as long as we have grown men making decisions for children, teenage pregnancies, child marriages and other social ills will continue to prevail.

According to the SWOP report, nearly half of all pregnancies in the world are unintended while half a million births every year are to very young adolescents aged between 10 and 14 years.

Imagine that!

Despite constituting about 63 percent of the total population in Zimbabwe, young people still face these very same challenges that hinder them from reaching their full potential.

A National Adolescent pregnancy study conducted by the Government in partnership with the UNFPA, Unicef and Unesco recently revealed the state of teenage pregnancies in the country.

The study showed that about 21 percent of all 1,7 million pregnancies that happened in Zimbabwe between 2019 and 2022 were among young people aged between 10 to 19 years.

This means that a staggering 350 000 young girls fell pregnant within the three-year time frame!

Once we talk about pregnancies, it would be amiss not to speak about maternal mortality.

Zimbabwe still records high maternal mortality rate of 363 per 100 000 live births. In simple terms, it means five women die every day during child birth.

And 25 percent to 30 percent of those women who are dying while giving birth are of young age.

Once these young girls become part of the statistics above, it means they have lost out on a lot of other rights and benefits they were entitled to.

They drop out of school, they are at risk of being victims of sexual and gender based violence, they are even more at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections not to mention drug and substance use.

What to do?

Experts contend that young people should be given the necessary knowledge for them to make informed choices in life.

These informed choices are the ones that will help prevent most of these teenage pregnancies and related issues from affecting them.

For instance, studies show that only one in three girls have the required knowledge as they enter puberty and begin menstruation. Even the boy child is affected in this.

Cultural, religious and many other reasons can be attributed to this shortcoming.

For some reason, parents do not feel comfortable talking to their children about the transition from childhood to adulthood. But if that child fails to get this information, the next thing is she will become a statistic in another study.

Hence these are some of the reasons why comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is essential for young people.

CSE is a curriculum bases process of teaching and learning about cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality.

It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge skills, attitudes and values that empowers then to realise their health, well-being and dignity.

It also helps them to develop respectful social and sexual relationships, consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others and understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.

Zimbabwe has included this component in the education curriculum as part of life skills, sexuality, HIV and Aids education.

UNFPA adolescents and youth programme specialist Mr Blessing Nyagumbo says those who have spoken against CSE in schools have not grasped the fundamental reason why it should be done.

“When we talk about CSE, we are not initiating young people into sex but we are basically doing the opposite. We are trying to stop early sexual debuts.

“We are trying to empower the young person with the knowledge and the skills that they need to exercise what we call bodily autonomy. To say no to anything that can infringe on their rights and will result in them falling pregnant,” he said.

He maintains that CSE remains one of the most interesting and impactful interventions that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, with support from UNFPA has implemented.

If sex education is part of the conversations at assembly points, in class and in smaller separate groups of boys and girls, then it can make an impact on the health outcomes for young people.

“Another effort we are starting now is the school and community integration. We are saying that CSE once its delivered in schools has to be complimented within the community.

“We are roping in the parent/guardian- child communication whereby the school plays its part but when the child goes home the parent or guardian also have to enforce that message.

“This is one of the approaches that can sustain CSE and make it more acceptable and impactful,” said Mr Nyagumbo.

Of course, CSE has been made to be age appropriate and gender specific for it to be successfully implemented.

Unesco says when delivered well and combined with access to necessary sexual and reproductive health services, CSE empowers young people to make informed decisions about relationships and sexuality and navigate a world where gender based violence, gender inequality, early and unintended pregnancies, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections still pose serious risks to their health and well-being.

It also keeps children safe from abuse by teaching them about their bodies and how to change practices that lead to becoming pregnant before they are ready.

After all is said and done, CSE also has to be inclusive to ensure that no child is left behind.

“In terms of the information education communication material that we are supporting the Ministry with, it is also sensitive to the disability issues so that we mainstream and do not leave anyone behind. So we support IC material in braille and some of it in audio to cater for the various disabilities that we have in schools,” Mr Nyagumbo added.

Government on its part has done a lot to ensure that children are given the necessary information at the right stage of their academic lives.

The inclusion of CSE in the curriculum itself was a step in the right direction and deserves to be applauded.

The enrol back policy which seeks to reintegrate children who drop out of school after falling pregnant or getting into child marriages is another plus for Government. While this has its challenges for the young girls involved, it is an available option that can help these girls to finish school and live better lives.

Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Mr Moses Mhike acknowledged that CSE was important as it helped to equip young people with knowledge to make the right choices.

He said it was being complimented with community engagements that sought to address the root cause of child marriages and teenage pregnancies.

“We have been working with partners on engagement at community level. We have indabas that we have been doing including our traditional leaders, church leaders and all others. Majority of these issues stem from our cultural issues so we believe that if we do not engage community leaders we will not be able to move because this is where it is happening,” he said.

“For instance in Murehwa we had an indaba with chiefs and they made a pledge to say they would go back to their communities and engage church leaders, councillors, MPs and village heads. We need to speak with one voice to say enough is enough, we are denying the future of these kids and we should let them determine the course of their own life.”

But for all these efforts to work in the youth’s favour, policies also have to consider the youthful population.

After all, if the majority of the population itself is youthful, more investment should be made by Government towards meeting the needs of young people.

A well-implemented CSE policy coupled with adequate investment in the young generation will free the young people from the clutches of poverty that sometimes push them towards early sexual activities and marriages.

And we can have an empowered young generation that has the power to say NO! to situations that are detrimental to their future.

An educated young person is indeed an asset to the nation!

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