20 Oct 2020

Ngami Regional Health Management Team (NRHMT) registered 328 teenage pregnancy cases between January and September.

Five of them were girls under the age of 15.

Principal registered nurse, Ms Keneilwe Thankane, said this at a parent-child dialogue on sexuality in Maun on Monday.

Ms Thankane said in 2019, the region registered 427 such cases, with 13 being under 15.

She said the statistics showed that children engaged in unprotected sex and were exposed to pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.

“Those children are not physically fit for pregnancy, some experience complications during birth, while some may lose lives or never be able to bear children again,” she said.

Ms Thankane also said teenage pregnancy affected the victims’ education since they dropped out of school.

Another speaker, Sergeant Onkabetse Boranabi of Maun police said 26 cases of defilement, which included rape of minors, had been reported between April and October in the district.

When giving objectives of the workshop, principal education officer at the curriculum development and evaluation department, Ms Jane Gaongalelwe, said the workshop was part of the East and Southern Africa commitment on comprehensive sexuality education that was endorsed in 2013.

Ms Gaongalelwe said at the end of the agreement, Botswana was expected to produce a parent-child booklet, which would help parents to have conversations with their children on issues of sexuality.

She said the countries were concerned about issues that negatively affected children such as early sexual debut, gender based violence, teenage pregnancy and child marriages.

Ms Gaongalelwe said the aim was to close the gap between parents and children by encouraging dialogue between the parties.

“If parents do not discuss sexuality with children, the children are open to abuse,” she said, adding that it was important to sensitise about some cultural norms and beliefs that perpetuated child abuse.

Ministry of Basic Education’s comprehensive sexuality education consultant, Dr Thelma Majela, said the envisaged parent-child communication manual would help close the gap between parents and children.

She said it was realised that parents were not effective on issues of sexuality education, stressing that ‘parents should change to match the assertive character of children of nowadays’. ENDS