23 Sep 2019

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Botswana office recently gathered print and broadcast journalists from across the country to build their capacity and launch an awareness campaign on the scourge of Early Unintended Pregnancy (EUPs) amongst young girls.

The training which was held in Mahalapye attracted close to 30 media practitioners from both government and private media. 

Officiating at the training workshop, Ms Tariro Makanga-Chikumirike, a health and development communications specialist said EUP was a global public health concern with high prevalence rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

In 10 of the countries surveyed in Eastern and Southern Africa(ESA), 15 per cent of women between 15 and 19 were found to have fallen pregnant at least once. This is especially prevalent in areas where child marriages are rife.

She thus explained that EUP was driven by multiple factors that included poverty, lack of information and access to reproductive health services, cultural norms, peer pressure and sexual abuse and intergenerational sex. 

In some instances, she said in other areas girls had difficulty accessing sexual reproductive health services and modern contraceptives. 

Furthermore, she said even in places where such health facilities were available, young girls felt judged by health care workers and were stigmatised. 

These young girls, she added, felt they could not talk to their parents either.

Ms Makanga-Chikumirike noted that early unintended pregnancies had a negative impact on the educational attainments for girls through school dropouts and decreased completion rates. 

Consequently, early pregnancies, she said, came at great physical risks to the young girls who went through severe emotional trauma, early marriage and social stigma. 

For most of these girls, Ms Makanga-Chikumirike said an early pregnancy meant the end of their education as some were expelled or dropped out due to discrimination and financial reasons. 

She also indicated that of those who dropped out less than five per cent completed their studies. 

She explained that looking at the statistics, ministers from East and Southern Africa committed to reducing early unintended pregnancy by 75 per cent by 2020 through bringing comprehensive sexuality education into the curriculum.

 She also urged the media to challenge regressive cultural practices that support early marriage and sexual coercion and sensitise communities and parents about how to deal with school-age pregnancy. 

She encouraged the media practitioners to report on access to youth-friendly health services and ensure that health workers displayed sensitive and supportive attitudes, while also encouraging parents to communicate with their children to improve their knowledge of sexual health. 

She also urged the media to avoid victimising pregnant young girls.

Ms Makanga-Chikumire also highlighted that the EUP campaigns endeavoured to raise awareness on the issue and make its prevention a priority, especially in East and Southern Africa where it is prevalent. 

To ensure that the right of education for girls is realised, the health and development communications specialist said that an effective response was required from both the education, health and other stakeholders. 

If school drop-outs as a result of EUPs werre to be controlled, she added that families, parents, guardians and community leaders, school administrators, adolescent boys and girls needed to be brought on board. 

This, Ms Makanga-Chikumirike observed, would ensure that young girls were empowered through learning about sexuality and equipping them with knowledge, skills and attitudes and values that would empower them to realise their health, wellbeing and dignity.

 She challenged the media to ensure that communication channels were available to reach adolescent girls and boys through communication for development. 

The EUP campaign, she also noted, was premised on education, health and the rights of the girl child. 

She said the aim of the capacity building workshop was to identify a pool of media practitioners who have an appreciation of EUP so that they could push the thematic issue onto the media agenda. 

Early and Unintended Pregnancy, Ms Makanga-Chikumirike highlighted, was not a popular issue with many newsrooms, hence the need to advocate for stories along this line.

 This, she asserted, justified the need to engage the media on such issues and deepen their knowledge and understanding for informed reportage.

 To achieve sustained coverage on EUP, she challenged the media to do a lot more research on the issue and report factually while respecting the rights of EUP survivors. 

UNESCO country office, National Professional Officer, Mr Martin Mosima explained that one of the challenges that the country still grappled with was lack of reliable statistics to determine the extent of EUPs. 

He, therefore, urged the media to play a leading role in highlighting the cases as they were detrimental to the well-being of young girls.

 Mr Mosima also called upon the education and health ministries to work collaboratively with the media for the campaign  to bear fruit.

 He was also of the view that journalists need to engage with the subject matter, especially when writing stories on interventions that needed to be put in place to end EUPs in the country. Consequently, Mr Mosima explained that available statistics did not paint a true picture of what was currently obtaining on the ground, especially in poor and rural areas where data on re-entry rates back to school for EUP survivors still needed to be ascertained. 

This, Mr Mosima noted, was very critical, if effective and proper interventions were to be put into place. Ends