How to save girls from the scourge of unplanned pregnancies

I have seen girls becoming pregnant – some of them students - and complained about the situation, as if there was nothing they could do to avoid it.

“Some of the girls ended up taking huge risks like abortion using very unsafe procedures. Some got away with it. But those who were not so lucky lost their lives in the process or found themselves in serious medical complications which left them with permanent scars.”

To some people who think upright, such girls were simply irresponsible. It is obvious that information about contraception is everywhere, especially during this era when technology has advanced with the emergence of the new media.

There was all the reason for these girls to surf for the right ‘contraception’ to rid themselves of the trouble? They must have been reckless.

But that was then. “Now I perceive the matter differently, thanks to a few literatures I read about population and family planning issues from Tanzania’s Coalition for Demographic Awareness and Action (TCDAA).”

Now I realise that, I didn’t consider some important facts and which made me reach the wrong conclusion. It was sheer ignorance on my part to assume we are all the same, we all have access and enjoy same privileges of the modern world.

To begin with, rural life is quite different from urban life. Rural people do not have easy access to information as those living in the urban areas.

For example, only a few people in the villages have access to mobile phones, let alone smart phones which can connect to the internet. Having a gadget is one thing, but knowing how to use it to solve your day to day problems is quite another.

It is also important to remember that most of the useful contents in the internet are in other languages, mainly English.
Furthermore, most rural dwellers still adhere to outdated traditions, and many of them are opposed to the concept of family planning!

Also, in rural areas, medical workers like nurses are few. Furthermore, girls do not so often consult midwives to discuss with them about contraception. They fear, they will probably be branded all sorts of bad names.

The rural-urban divide put aside, huge disparities also exist in towns between families. There are many disadvantaged people who are totally detached from modern development in every field of life.

Take for example, a girl born of poor parents both of whom are mere primary school leavers. The girl also probably never went beyond Standard Seven, and happens to live in a purely backward area - getho and she also associates with people of the same peerage.

Given such circumstances, all avenues for accessing family planning education appear blocked. In this case therefore the government needs to wage a massive awareness campaign and set up mechanisms to help these suffering girls.
In towns as well, not all people who have smart phones, let alone skills, use them to access information- to be precise useful information.

Government needs to do more

Based on these challenges, one can conclude that the government, parents and the society in general, are partly to blame for the plight of girls who fall pregnant while they, actually, have no intention of being so.

The government has a great role to play to ensure that all women, including young girls, have no knowledge of contraception and family planning to minimise incidences of unwanted and unplanned for pregnancies which have huge impact on population growth.

To make the government committed to this role, all stakeholders can rally behind Tanzania’ Coalition for Demographic Awareness and Action (TCDAA) which is dedicated to raising greater awareness about the pace of change to the country’s population.

Members forming this coalition including Advance Family Planning, DSW, Engender Health, Health Promotion Tanzania, Marie Stopes Tanzania, Pathfinder, UMATI, University of Dar es Salaam Department of Economics and the United Nations Association of Tanzania.

These organizations are working hard to highlight the need for the government to take measures to manage challenges of rapid population growth.

One of the challenges is lack of knowledge in family planning to most women as well as lack of access to contraceptive. At the moment, only 27 percent of the population has access to modern family planning methods.

TCDAA has therefore recommended that the government should allocate sufficient funds to scale up access to modern family planning to young people so as to enable them to delay childbearing, complete education and start careers first. TCDAA wants access to family planning methods reach 60 percent by 2020.

The coalition also demands that the government must ensure that comprehensive, scientifically accurate information on modern family planning methods is included in the national secondary school curriculum.

Parents need to wake up

For their part, parents are partly to blame because of their failure to guide and educate their daughters about the use of contraception. Girls really need this knowledge so they may be able to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

The overbidding problem is that most parents live in denial, are stuck in the past and are simply not realistic. They think teaching their girls about sex education and family planning is same as encouraging them to become prostitutes.

But apparently, our refusal to teach these girls sex education and family planning makes little difference whatsoever in their behaviour. Actually, some activities say, it makes matters worse because girls go out there and learn from other people or on their own by trying to do things first even before they are imbibed with the requisite education.

It is obvious that some of the things they try on their own, turn out to be much more dangerous and with dire consequences. For once, parents and today’s society need to wake up and realise this is a different world.