Seated underneath an avocado tree in the backyard of my home, I am surrounded by a legion of young women. The words 'How to Start a Business', awkwardly scribbled in my unsightly handwriting right across a white board facing the group.
It's quite a windy day and the leaves dance viciously above us. Today, the cries of the children aren't the only thing interrupting the session. Almost all the girls carry a child - their child - those that didn’t, left them in the custody of a trusted sitter back home.
Aged 16 to 22, they have all already mothered a child or two. In 2018, the Zambia Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) reported that, 31.6% of girls aged 15-19 years, had already given birth, or were pregnant with their first child. As is the case here. Most of the girls are primary school dropouts. And all, come from low-income households, barely making ends meet.
I stand before them with a child in hand - my son - I am 21 years old. Attempting to solve their problems, rather, our problems.
It's easy to tell they are eager, eager to change their circumstances and that of their children. You don't get much help as a young mother in my country, neglect is the agenda of the day - so when help comes, however minute it might be, you take it and you make the most of it.
Here, we tackle empowerment and poverty eradication, we speak openly about stigma and mental health, we attempt to do the same for comprehensive sexuality education: How do we keep young mothers from repeat premature pregnancy?
Do we teach sexual abstinence only?
Again?
For so long, this has been the norm, and to a greater extent, the problem. At domestic and institutional level the notion of sexual abstinence curbing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases has been championed predominantly. Not to say that this is wrong, but 16,000 adolescent school dropouts in one year owing to pregnancy, according to UNFPA 2018 reports, alarms a dire need to revisit our methods.
In homes, the topic of sexual intercourse is barely up for discussion. When a girl comes of age, she is urged by her distant aunt or grandmother to steer clear of male interaction. Tradition bids your mother not to take you under her menstrual tutelage, you can't even discuss the hygiene bit.
From the inception of adolescence, young girls begin to view their mother as someone they can't openly converse with, especially about their sexuality. A problem in its own right without need to mention.
In schools, comprehensive sexual education is integrated into other subjects, teachers urge the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) to foster its separation, as the former has failed to mitigate the arising problems. The Ministry of General Education opposes it.
The silence around sex, contraceptive methods and their legality, impairs our ability to meet adolescents at their point of need.
How many more destitute mothers and heart-rending statistics, will it take to come to terms with the fact that teenagers are engaging in sexual activities, carrying and reproducing?
That the decoding of Adolescent Sexual Health Rights, could spare a child from raising a child in absolute poverty that is bound to be recurring.
In our sessions, I listen to the decry of the young mothers, when they speak of scrounging around for little resources needed to get by, 3 meals that we often take for granted, It leaves me to think that perhaps enlightening adolescents of their options should precede the need to preserve cultural norms.
