UN Resident Coordinator, Deputy Prime Minister take teenage pregancy campaign to schools
The Lets Talk Campaign continues with visits to schools to deliberate early and unintended pregnancy with students and teachers.
In just less than a week after launching the Let's Talk campaign to end Early and unintended Pregnancies (EUP), the Deputy Prime Minister, Senator Themba Masuku, visited Mhlatane High School to engage with students and teachers.
In this first school visit, the Deputy Prime Minister expressed hope that speaking openly about EUP in schools would inspire the youth to continue talking and engage with others on how the country can work towards combating EUP. " We are here today to continue empowering the youth to continue to talk about EUP and come up with solutions to this ever growing problem in the Kingdom" he said.
The DPM launched the campaign at the George Hotel in Manzini on 30 of January 2020 in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training. The campaign aims to listen to all stakeholders on what they consider to be the root causes of EUP and the possible solutions to help deescalate the rising cases of early and unintended pregnancy in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The DPM also stressed the fact that students who do fall pregnant at an early age must not be ostracized and should always be given a second chance to progress in life. The DPM also reiterated the Resident Coordinator’s message about making sure that boys are not left out of the conversation as they are also party to the pregnancy and cannot be allowed to evade their responsibility.
Minister of Health, Lizzy Nkosi reminded students to no deter from the goals they have set for themselves through early sexual debut. The minister highlighted how EUP becomes a hindrance to achieving any goals that students have set for themselves. "We all have goals we have set for ourselves, you are the future of this country so do all you can to achieve all the incredible goals you have set for yourself" she said.
The Minister further reminded the students that even if they do happen to have children at an early age they should not despair and continue to work towards their career goals and remember that they are competing against themselves and nobody else.
UN Resident Coordinator in Eswatini, Ms Nathalie Ndongo-Seh urged everybody to put their effort into “making sure that schools are a protective and inclusive environment and are a driving force in putting an end to early and unintended pregnancy in the Kingdom of Eswatini.” She also reminded the audience that sexual education should not look at teenage pregnancy as an issue for young girls only but should take a holistic approach by educating boys/men as well.” The RC ended her remarks with a quote from Nelson Mandela, “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness bloom,” reminding the students of the great things they can achieve.
Students were given an opportunity to ask questions to the guests. Some of the questions included, what happens if a girl child is being sexually assaulted, but the perpetrator is the one responsible for their maintenance. The DPM responded by saying that this was a very tough question to answer but stressed the fact that victims of abuse must report their cases as the state is there to protect the victim and has structures that will firstly arrest the perpetrator and then proceed to look after and protect the victim.
The campaign will continue to run with other scheduled activities and will increase access to sexual reproductive health services (including contraception) for all adolescents and young people, without judgment or discrimination. It will also ensure that adolescents and young people have access to good quality comprehensive sexuality education to equip them to make informed life choices and prevent early and unintended pregnancy.
Written by
UN Communication Group in Eswatini
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