adminCatherine Murombedzi
GIRLS have been brought up and socialised to be care-givers and home tenders. By virtue of such an up-bringing the boy child enjoys favours and sees the girl child lagging behind in many aspects. Already the pendulum swings the boy up and it is a challenge in those scenarios to balance the act.
With young people growing up and taking their leadership positions, the cry has been loud and clear that young people are being suffocated in most instances.
Despite government’s efforts to advance the rights of girls’ access to education, there remain significant gender disparities in educational opportunities. In sub-Saharan Africa the proportion of those who have never attended school is higher among women as compared to men.
In Zimbabwe, the report, which is based on 2013 figures, shows that more than 13 000 primary and secondary pupils dropped out of school in the year under review. About 43 percent of primary school pupils fell through a black hole. That is almost half of the total enrolment! The rate almost doubled from 23 percent the previous year.
The leaking educational net shows no safety for the young people.
Dr Mtisunge Kachingwe, YWCA Malawi chapter chairperson spoke on the need to take girl child education seriously as the gap kept widening.
She pointed out that 52 percent of the population of Malawi was young and under 18 years of age. (2008 Mw census)
“Our population is young, but the policies do not reflect this. The majority is young as shown by the census of 2008 that 52 percent were under 18 years,” said Dr Kachingwe speaking at a World Council of Churches, EHAAI symposium in Mangochi in Malawi last year.
“More boys than girls enrol in secondary school. Of the 74 percent of the population aged 15 years and above that have not attained any educational qualification, 80 percent are women,” said Dr Kachingwe.
The world therefore becomes an unsafe place for a young uneducated woman who is not in a position to get relevant employment, able to read and articulate national issues and more importantly be able to be financial secure. The power of education therefore can’t be underplayed.
The ghastly statistics given by Dr Kachingwe are sad indeed and the regional variables are not far off the mark.
Dr Kachingwe aged 24 is a medical doctor and has witnessed poor client relationship at health centres.
“There is poor client-provider relationship at health facilities. The youth are found not able to access useful health services as the paucity of information available regarding sexuality and services offered at Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS) is inadequate. There are also financial shortages needed to scale up effective YFHS interventions,” said Dr Kachingwe.
The unfriendly environment leads to girls falling pregnant and getting married. At times some decide on having unsafe abortions leading to death.
Why is this so, they would have failed to access contraception due to the uneasy environment.
With no strong educational background the girl ends up in a difficult position and as a way to escape poverty some take the route to an early marriage believing that they would be financially secure, but alas that is not so. Education therefore remains the vaccine to a host of challenges facing adolescents.
It remains the viable option out of poverty. But how can that be when education itself remains ellusive and is beyond reach due to financial constraints, cultural belief and geographical location which sees school distance being a barrier to education.
Dr Kachingwe looks forward to the day when youth centres become places to serve the youth and are youth friendly.
“HIV and Aids prevalence data shows that 15–24-year-olds have the highest rates of new HIV infection, with adolescent girls considerably more likely to be infected than adolescent boys. Lack of knowledge on STI signs and symptoms is rampant and the YFHS again are found lacking as they fail to provide the needs of the youth,” Dr Kachingwe added.
With such centres manned by old people the youth become reluctant to go to health facilities to seek services. One never knows when a health and confidential issue will become a community issue as old people manning centres look at the youth with suspicion.
“We have a generation of those who were born HIV positive and they have now reached sexual maturity and do not get adequate nor equitable access to SRH and HIV services in Malawi,” Dr Kachingwe said.
Dr Kachingwe went on to say these youths find it difficult to open up. No one believes they were born HIV positive but rather they had been of loose morals.
Dr Kachingwe went on to speak against harmful traditional practices carried out at initiation ceremonies in her country.
“We still have harmful traditional ceremonies. Chinamwali (initiation) after graduation encourages the youth to have sex as a way of ‘removing dust’. This is always unprotected sex. The ngalibas (initiation counsellors) tell the children some issues that are very sensitive in nature, in the process arousing curiosity in the children, who have not even graduated,” said Dr Kachingwe.
Dr Kachingwe strongly advised families to open up and to speak on sex and sexuality from an early age.
“Sex education does not have to come one stage too late when a youth is already sexually active. Engagement must be at an early age in the home, at school and even at church,” she said.
She highlighted the need to have innovative message that spoke to the needs in message deliverance.
“We need to develop curriculum’s that are comprehensive on sex and sexuality. Youth skills development should be on-going. We need to lobby and advocate government for correct youth policies.
“Youth friendly centres need to be manned by the youths. Sexual education in schools should be introduced and faith based organizations need to understand today’s youth and their needs. In fact we need to have youth positions and exclusivity in the home, school and church. These places need to be a safe space not a place of judgement,” she expounded.
Another thorny issue of child marriage has to stop. Muzvare Betty Makoni founder of Girl Child Network International said that phrase must not even exist in the vocabulary.
“Child marriage is wrong, there is nothing like child marriage, it is child rape,” said Muzvare Betty Makoni of Girl Child Network International.
“There is nothing called child marriage. No child can be married. Once anyone has sex with a child it is rape. Period. Can all those working on programmes on child marriage consider changing to child rape. Marriage will never happen with a child,” said Muzvare Makoni.
The home, the failing schools, the church, the burdened health delivery system all point to an unsafe network intertwined to give adolescents a scare and an unsafe environment.
Online Reporter