A Lusaka based nurse has expressed with great dismay the recent media reports that more than five thousand (5000) girls in Chipata, Eastern Province, under the age of 20 fell pregnant in a space of 3 months. Irene Miti Singogo says the nation should be concerned with this fact regarding teenagers engaging or being coerced into having unprotected sex. She said that apart from pregnancy and pregnancy related complications because of their age, these young people  are putting themselves at risk of sexually transmitted diseases, dropping out of school and subsequently incurring a number of unplanned expenses seeing that health care is not cheap, among other things.

“Many young girls, especially in rural areas do not have many aspirations for the future apart from being married off, getting pregnant and taking care of their babies and husbands. This can can be attributed to a lack of proper role models within their environments and inadequate educational and recreational facilities. These girls more often than not only have fellow mothers and wives as their role models. They usually do not have much else to look forward to in life,” she said.

Mrs Singogo, who is Head of Nursing at Texila American University, a medical campus located in Lusaka said “traditional practices are also partly to blame. Young boys and girls who get to puberty are taught several things which include sexual practices, and they go out there aiming to experiment what they are taught. That is not to say all traditional lessons are bad, but we should be careful to teach children what is age appropriate and necessary information like the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, risks of early pregnancy, etc, should not be left out.”

Mrs Singogo has called on Civil Society Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Government and other stakeholders to quickly intervene in keeping the girls, and boys alike, busy with education, skills training and recreational facilities. “Until something is done quickly, not so much will change. It is up to us all to step in and help these young people by letting them know that there is more to life than marriage and having babies. Our approach has to be pro-active and not just word based.”