By Tasia Doreen

Moyo

Stake holders in moyo district have attributed the increasing cases of teenage pregnancy to myths and misconceptions in the community. This was during a stakeholders dissemination workshop on Moyo district gender based violence data held at Moyo people’s hall on Monday September 4^th 2023.

While   presenting the district report on teenage pregnancy, the District Health Officer Moyo, Dr. Franklin Idi explained that there are a number of myths with in the community that have contributed to the increasing cases of teenage pregnancy.

He pointed that the young girls are being deceived by the men  with false information that if they bath immediately after sex they will not get pregnant, jumping up and down will also allow the flow of the sperms ,and also having sex while standing which has misled the girls.

Teenage pregnancy has vast health challenges such as martenal mortality due to health complications, obstetric fistula, unsafe abortion, school dropout and poverty.

Relatedly, Mr. Amoko Emmanuel the district speaker also said that there are also traditional beliefs that if you don’t produce early you may end up not having children in future which pushes these girls into premarital sex ‘‘there are also people in the community who say, when you don’t have sex you begin to get back pain and they are communicating these things to the young people which is not true and also say when you don’t produce early by the time you marry in future, you may not have children in future so these children want to produce, ’he added.

The report also indicated that the cases of teenage pregnancy keep increasing during holidays which clearly shows that parents don’t do their roles of parenting.

Whereas Mr. Tiondi Dominic the Local Council 3 Chairperson Lefori Town Council called upon the parents to provide children sex education and right information regarding reproductive health, narrating that lack of parental guidance is the major source of teenage pregnancy.  ‘‘our mothers have run away from guiding our girls, let’s be sincere on this, ’he stated.

The Resident District Commissioner Moyo, Mr. Gore Goffin appealed to the stakeholders to continue talking to the people in order to change their mindset which has affected the fight against this vice.

Moyo district is among the top ten districts in the country with the highest number of teenage pregnancy at 15 percent. In 2023, Dufile Sub County is leading in cases of teenage pregnancy with 22 %, followed by lefori with 18 percent,   and laropi 17.5 percent respectively.

COVER PHOTO: Courtesy Photo