Ndola Community Medical Office Aims At Reducing Risky Sexual Behaviour

The Ndola Community Medical Office has embarked on a programme to reduce risky sexual behaviour, new HIV infections, unwanted pregnancies and abortions among youths.

District medical officer, Dr Consity Mwale in an interview said his office was working to revamp and strengthen sexual reproduction health services that can be easily accessed by youths.

He noted that youths usually failed to consult adults, including their parents, fearing to be misunderstood or judged as being promiscuous.

In an effort to address reproductive health issues affecting adolescents in Ndola, the Ndola community medical office has identified health workers in all health centres to coordinate youth friendly health services.

“This is important because traditionally adolescents do not consult parents or guardians on issues relating to reproductive health. They normally consult one another and often times mislead themselves. The rationale is that youths feel free to confide in fellow youths who ‘understand what they are going through regarding health issues’,” Dr Mwale explained.

He said with the introduction of active strengthened youth-friendly services in health posts, the young generation would be saved from the HIV/AIDs pandemic in the district.
Dr Mwale also noted that youths’ access to cost-effective quality youth-friendly programmes had been a big challenge in the past.

“Lack of knowledge and misinformation on reproductive issues such as abortion, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STI) is worse especially among female youths and children. Youths are vulnerable to contracting HIV and AIDs because of their high risk to social-economic challenges such as unemployment, adult abuse and ignorance,” Dr Mwale said.

“We are now working with the district education board secretary to come up with programmes to raise awareness in schools about availability of youth-friendly services in Ndola. Equipping these peers with knowledge and skills on reproductive health is one way adolescents can be reached in numbers. The goal is to reduce risky sexual behaviour, new HIV infections, unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Physical and emotional changes of the body are also discussed.”

Youth-friendly health services are reproductive health services offered to young girls and boys by trained peers with regard to accessing information and services on health in a confidential and non-judgmental manner.

Posted by Kunda on August 9, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry