Online Reporter
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu [email protected]
PARENTS and guardians have been urged to educate youngsters on HIV and Aids prevention as part of efforts to protect them against child marriages and teenage pregnancies.
Addressing villagers from Nsango area in Ward 22, Insiza District, the National Aids Council District Aids Coordinator, Mr Mlilo Maboyi said community members have a crucial role to play in the HIV prevention agenda. He urged villagers to support programmes that are being implemented.
The government working with development partners has rolled out the “Not in my village campaign”, an initiative which seeks to curb teenage pregnancies and early child marriages in the fight against HIV and Aids.
“We have rolled out the “Not in my village” campaign which is also being rolled out in Insiza District. Teams will be moving around spreading the message across the district and we ask four your cooperation and support. The programme seeks to curb teenage pregnancies and child marriages. Chiefs will be leading the programme but as villagers you also have a role to play.
“Please ensure that you don’t marry off children who are under age or abuse children. As parents and guardians may you spread this message and also educate children so that they can be empowered and desist from engaging in activities that will put them at risk,” he said.
The country’s HIV prevalence rate is sitting 10,1 percent while the Matabeleland South provincial prevalence rate is sitting at 17,1 percent.
In a bid to combat the crisis which is affecting several provinces in the country, Government in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has launched the campaign being led by adolescents and young people themselves, through the Young People’s Network on Health and Wellbeing (YPNHW), working with the National Aids Council.
The “Not In My Village Campaign” is a community-based campaign that aims to raise awareness, mobilise action, and empower community gatekeepers to end child marriages in rural areas of Zimbabwe.
Eliminating child marriages and teenage pregnancies aligns with Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which aims to create a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society by 2030.
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Bongani Ndlovu