Online Reporter
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu,[email protected]
UMZINGWANE District is celebrating a 10 percent drop in teenage pregnancies this year, a success credited to targeted youth programmes, with the “Not in My Village” campaign leading the charge.
National AIDS Council (NAC) officials revealed that from January to September last year, the district recorded 380 teenage pregnancy cases. This year, the same period saw 339 cases, showing a clear downward trend. Last year, a total of 505 cases were recorded for the entire year.
Speaking during a NAC tour, Umzingwane District AIDS Coordinator Mduduzi Ngwenya said: “Our interventions seek to influence sexual behaviour change and one way of monitoring our progress is through teenage pregnancy incidences within the district. The umbrella programme we are pushing to address this scourge is the ‘Not in My Village’ campaign.”
STI cases have also decreased, with 1 188 reported this year compared to 1 438 last year across all age groups.
The government, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), launched the youth-driven “Not in My Village” campaign earlier this year. The initiative is led by the Young People’s Network on Health and Wellbeing (YPNHW) in partnership with NAC.
Efforts to eliminate child marriages and teenage pregnancies tie into Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which aims to build a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society by 2030.
Child marriages in Zimbabwe are influenced by poverty, gender norms, cultural and religious beliefs, and limited access to education and comprehensive health services.
Ngwenya expressed optimism that by the end of the year, Umzingwane could record even lower figures than last year, giving hope to communities tackling teenage pregnancies.
