Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:19:08 +0000
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
THERE is need for Zambia to fight adolescent pregnancy which undermines girls’ human rights and compromises their opportunity to fully realise their social-economic development.
In an interview, Population Council country director, Michael Mbizro said adolescent girls had rights to education, health, dignity, non-discrimination and quality of life which needed to be protected.
Dr Mbizro said protecting, promoting and fulfilling those rights was necessary to ensure that girls grow into healthy, skilled, productive, independent and responsible citizens.
“Most adolescent girls drop-out of school when they are pregnant, which compromises their future because they grow up with limited career options and opportunities.
“In addition, some girls will have unsafe abortions that lead to injuries, disability and sometimes death,” he said.
Dr Mbizro said that there was need to ensure that both school infrastructure and human resource were available for girls to attend school without hindrance.
He added, “there is need to ensure that the school environment meets the needs of adolescents, including proper sanitary facilities and illuminating bullying especially by boys and male teachers”. The Population Council country director urged the Zambian government to empower adolescent girls with knowledge and information on condoms as dual protection against pregnancy and some Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs).
He also said that there was need for health workers not to stigmatize adolescents who seek reproductive health services in health facilities. “There is need to ensure that that the Ministry of Health and the line ministries develop adequate referral systems that link adolescents to sexual and reproductive services within the health systems,” he said.
He stated that another way of to increase access to services was to ensure that within the vicinity of every school, there was a health facility providing adolescent responsive and friendly services.
