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THE Zimbabwe Association of Church Related Hospitals has called on the Government to provide material support for teen mothers.
The country is struggling with a high rate of teen pregnancies and civil society organisations are calling for access to sexual and reproductive health services.
SASA programme coordinator, Dennis Dzikiti, said communities believe the Government should offer support to girl children, who become pregnant, if their marriages cannot be sanctioned.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to international and regional conventions binding the Government to a child rights-based and child-focused justice system.
Dzikiti believes this validates communities’ opinions.
“Communities feel that the Government should chip in and assist in such instances of early girl child pregnancies.
“Families do not want to carry the burden of looking after such children.”
Dzikiti said young women and adolescents generally find it difficult to access sexual reproductive health services, especially contraceptives.
“The general consensus is that while children can have information about contraceptives, the community and its leaders are against distribution of contraceptives to children, especially of school going age.
“Female children and young women are also not keen to access sexual reproductive health services because of the stigma associated with them.
“Communities, however, agree that children are engaging in risk behaviours and in most cases engage in casual sex if the males do not initiate safe sex.”
He also urged men to participate in HIV programmes and to report sexual abusers.
“The community felt there is a need to promote a whistle-blowing culture where suspected cases involving family members can be reported anonymously.
“Some cases of sexual abuse go unreported because the girl has to face the social stigma associated with it.”
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge