By Staff Writer
A landmark study has effectively indicates that about 286 200 adolescent girls between the age of 10-19 are sexually active compelling communities, the government and Civil Society Organisations to urgently explore ways to curb the ensuing disaster.
A recent study by the UNFPA titled ,’National Assessment on Adolescent Pregnancies in Zimbabwe’ 30% of the adolescent girls were sexually active.
An analysis by The Humanitarian Post which further broke down the data established that according to the latest Census exercise, Zimbabwe has an adolescent population of 1,8 million people.
Basing on the rounded figure of 53% representing the population of women means that 954 000 are adolescents.So 30% of that figure leaves us with 286 200 sexually active adolescents.
“Being sexually active increased with age with only 1% (15) very young adolescents reported being sexually active compared to 29% older adolescents. The median age at sexual debut was 16 years, the middle 50% lied between 15 and 17 years. Approximately 31% (134) reported to have had forced sex on their first sexual encounter,” said the report.
Sadly, the landmark survey established that of those who filed reports with police, 85% said no action was taken. Among those who reported to the police,74% reported that no action was taken by the responsible authorities, 24% reported that court cases were pending, withdrawn, or dropped by the courts for insufficient evidence and 2% had the perpetrators prosecuted.
Approximately 75% (315) of the first sexual encounter was with boyfriends, and only 23% (97) with husbands,1.5% (10) with strangers, 0.8% (6) with relatives, and 0.1% (2) with casual partners.
“About 93% of the adolescents had a health facility assisted delivery and 86% of the adolescents utilized antenatal care services in a health facility. Only 48% adolescents accessed ANC within the MoHCC recommended 12 weeks gestation age. Eighty nine percent attended a postnatal visit.
“Adolescents were able to access HIV and syphilis testing and early infant diagnosis for their infants 6 weeks post-delivery. Eighty percent of the infants were up to date with their scheduled immunizations and 99% of the adolescent mothers breastfed their infants,” said the report.
The median duration of breastfeeding was 10.5 months (interquartile range 4-16 months). Only 47% of the mothers reported exclusively breastfeeding their infants in the first six months of life.
50% percent of the mothers introduced complementary foods ranging from porridge, sadza, maheu, tea, water and non-prescribed traditional medicine /herbs below six months. Breastfeeding was challenging for mothers.
“The prevailing economic recession which led to poverty, unemployment, depletion of family saving, falling prices of their agricultural produce and migration of parents and caregivers has been cited as key drivers of adolescent pregnancy,” the study added.
