adminground where children as young as 10 are deliberately having sex.
But the thought of declaring a free sex environment for the youths goes against the grain for most people, youths included.
In a survey carried out by The Herald Cool Lifestyle in which a teen asked other teens for their opinions, the majority said it would be good for those wanting condoms to freely access them, but not in schools.
Besides, information on HIV and contraception is available all over including on public transport and billboards but even an adult still has to go to a service provider to access the advertised services. So should schools be converted into medical centres employing personnel to look after the sexual reproductive health of teens? It is not only on sexual reproductive health issues that the youths experience problems.
The government policy is for medical access for all without discrimination based on age, gender, race or religion. So all general health service providers should be trained to deal with all age groups so that the children who need the contraceptives can easily access them in conjunction with the specific individual expert advice that only qualified medical personnel – not teachers – can dispense.
And in addition, countries like the UK and the USA- where access to contraceptives is universal – are still experiencing an upsurge in teen pregnancies and related social ills. Therefore, advocating for wholesale provision of condoms in schools may be short-sighted and will not bring about real change in the end.
There was a story in the media of authorities in South Africa unilaterally injecting school girls with contraceptives sighting the possibility of rape and early indulgence as the reason. Parents were not told of the move and there was an understandable outcry. Putting contraceptives in schools is supposed to ensure that youths have safe, planned and pleasurable sex to avoid unwanted pregnancies and diseases including HIV.
The next question is where will they then use these condoms? Should the schools the also provide rooms for children to have this planned sex in a safe environment? But by saying no to condoms is the larger part of society deliberately turning a blind eye to new HIV infections in the young, pregnancies, school dropouts and illegal pregnancy termination which so often leads to death and sterility?
Activists say that there is a discrepancy in policy as the present situation teaches children about HIV and sex then denies them access to the services. As a result many bizarre and often deadly alternatives are sought by the youths as measures against STIs and unwanted pregnancy. At a recent Train the Trainer workshop on sexual and reproductive health rights among the youths held in Mutare and facilitated by SafAIDS an
officer from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare revealed that some youths are resorting to the use of beverage packaging plastics (‘freezit’ wrappers) as condoms.
The officer revealed that a young man in one of the country’s provinces had to have his organ amputated after it became septic after he had tied himself with a plastic paper. The young man said that he had been unable to get condoms and was afraid of getting HIV so had devised his own contraption.
This is not an isolated case. There are many more stories of children believing that the family planning pill prevents the transmission of HIV and that douching with a combination of Coca-Cola and vinegar immediately after the sexual act will prevent pregnancy. What this reveals is that there are grave information gaps and there is a need for educating the young on reproductive health and the consequences of early sexual debuts. A Ministry of Education and Child Welfare official attending the same workshop admitted that although on paper schools should be teaching life matters in subjects like Guidance and Counselling or
Education for Living, many schools are simply ignoring the subject in favour of pushing academic subjects.
Online Reporter