Mamkhulu

Advocacy

Helping youth and vulnerable children through the complicated systems of government grants, social services and birth certificates can be a long journey.  As noted in our heading "About Orphans" there are a lot of factors that make advocacy by organizations and individuals seeking to assist children a complicated but crucial task.

 

Teenage Pregnancy

 

 

One of the most difficult situations facing South Africa today is the rise in teenage pregnancies.  So many young girls are getting pregnant, that the country is struggling to find ways to prevent the problem. 

In an article in our local newspaper, The Lowvelder, the number of teenage pregnancies has risen from 25,000 per year to 60,000 school girl pregnancies per year. 

In a Department of Education / Department of Social Development study on why girls are getting pregnant, the following statistics were found:

• 66% of girls said that they didn't use contraception
• 28% said they wanted to have a baby
• 8% said that they wanted to show they were fertile
• 6% said they wanted to make people respect them
• 5% said they wanted to make their boyfriends marry them
• 3% said that they were forced to have sex against their will
• 2% said they wanted to get the child support grant

These statistics tell us that girls are not just getting pregnant because they want the government grant, which is a common opinion held by many South Africans.

 

Teenage pregnancy is very complex and a difficult issue to address.  Young girls can be physically damaged by having children at too early an age.  Girls drop out of school to have babies and many never return, or return but can't pass because of the responsibilities of looking after their children after school. They have no time for studying or homework and have many chores to do in the house.  The young mothers who do return to school face the costs of having to pay for childcare or burdening their relatives who themselves are removed from the workforce.

 

 

Solutions - Advocacy

What can we do to stop this problem of teenage pregnancy?  Is giving girls knowledways to protect themselves the answer?  In South Africa, one of the highest matric (Grade 12) subject marks is Life Orientation, yet girls continue to have babies when they are in school. 

Is handing out condoms the solution?  Couples having regular sexual contact often stop using condoms when they become familiar with their partners.  They use the condoms to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS but once they "know" their partners and think that they are negative, they stop using the condoms.  They then fall pregnant. 

If education is not enough, then what is?  Mamkhulu.org embarked on a new adventure in 2012 to try to educate girls about how to negotiate the world of teenage sexual involvement. 

The longer sexual debut can be postponed, the less likely the girl is to get pregnant or become HIV positive.  In South Africa, the age of sexual debut is dropping year after year.  Girls are engaging in sexual activity earlier and earlier. 

Mamkhulu.org's "Girls Who Say No" programme started the discussion about how we can prevent teenage pregnancy and assist girls to complete their education. This programme takes place in a number of primary and high schools in the Daantjie area.  

In addition, in December 2014, we launched our first "Teen Mom's Camp' for 20 girls and their 20 babies.  (See Projects)

 

Girl's Clubs

The aim of our "Girl's Clubs" is to empower girls by giving them a chance to learn about issues that affect their lives, enabling them to expand their social life networks and, learning vocatinal and life skills.

 

Using drama to introduce the topics, and involving all the relevant stakeholders in the problems, we hope to advocate for a reduction in teenage pregnancies.  We have launched an initiative that forms clubs of girls seeking support and information that can protect them from violence and abuse by men.

Offers of support have already come from various sources and we hope to be well on our way soon to changing this disturbing and socially destabilizing trend.