Hwange records spike in teenage pregnancies, child marriages

CONCERN has been raised over the rise in teenage pregnancies and child marriages in Hwange District in Matabeleland North province amid calls for enhanced stakeholder collaboration to reverse the trend.

Stakeholders have said the trend is worrying and made reference to the growing number of girls dropping out of school over the past few years in Hwange after falling pregnant.

This emerged during a stakeholder inception meeting organised by Buwalo Matalikilo Trust (BMT), a Hwange-based organisation that seeks to increase awareness and demand for sexual reproductive health in communities.

Representatives from different Government departments, the National Aids Council, health, civic society and education, among others, attended the meeting.

BMT is introducing a new project called “Catalysing access to comprehensive sexual reproductive health through social accountability monitoring” in partnership with Amplify Change from the United Kingdom.

The programme will run until December 2025 targeting communities in Hwange Rural District Council’s Kachechete Ward 3 and Dete Ward 18.
BMT executive director Ms Anna Mandizha said it envisages to increase knowledge levels on sexual reproductive health in both boys and girls, young women and men and removing barriers that hinder young people from accessing quality services within health facilities and in communities they come from.

She said the idea is to increase participation levels of community leaders and family structures to support young people to access services and be able to advocate for policies that are user-friendly and sensitive.

During the meeting, it was noted that organisations cannot carry out activities within schools because of policies set by the Government to protect learners.

Stakeholders felt that while it is good to protect learners, they were being left out of some programmes, which they cannot be part of in the community because of cultural issues and would have accessed them at school.

They said there is need for in-school social interaction through various activities such as clubs with boys included to build an informed society.

“Organisations and departments should incorporate their activities and collaborate when working in communities,” participants agreed.
Health officials also said they were keen on reviving school health programmes such as eye screening but there were restrictions.

“For us as BMT, it is in our interest to network so we have sensitisation, awareness and support systems. Unfortunately, we can’t be in schools because the country’s new education laws do not allow outsiders to hold activities within learning institutions.

“We will continue reaching out to the young people through activities in the community,” said Ms Mandizha.
In an interview, she said the project was prompted by the number of young people who need support and access to sexual reproductive health services and also the need to increase knowledge levels and parent-child communication around sexuality in Hwange.

“Without zeroing in on statistics, we have a high number of teenage pregnancies and early child marriages in Hwange especially in the rural communities. As BMT we will continue playing our part trying to reduce those figures and also trying to encourage communities to adhere to the recent statute that President Mnangagwa signed making it illegal for any child to partake in sexual activities,” she said.

“We are hoping that, through this programme, we will raise awareness levels for parents and communities in general. Parents should play their parental role and create a safe space for children.

“From our experience as an organisation, policy affects very much because schools are not very well resourced with material, finance and human personnel hence we come in as private organisations but with restrictions pupils get left out,” said Ms Mandizha.

“So, when we capacitate teachers to offer extra work to the curriculum, we are overburdening them and end up affecting in-class learning.”

Access to health services is a basic constitutional right while the Public Health Act also provides for access to healthcare services within a reasonable proximity.

People in Hwange walk long distances to the nearest health facility for services.

Ms Mandizha said gaps due to lack of knowledge and access and policy frameworks go a long way in undoing most of the good work that has been previously done to protect children in schools.

Deputy Hwange District Development Co-ordinator Mrs Nyaradzo Masocha implored stakeholders to work closely with each other driven by the main focus to deliver services and ensure sustainability in programming.