Group Village Head (GVH) Matekwe of Mangochi district urged young people in his area to consider utilization of contraceptive methods of their choice in order to evade pregnancy and remain in school.
The call was made during a Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) awareness campaign which YONECO organized at Malembo Village in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Nankumba. The campaign was aimed at promoting an enabling socio-cultural environment for young people’s access to SRH services.
In his remarks, the GVH stressed that family planning methods help young people to evade unwanted pregnancies which also fuel child marriage, stay health and determined to achieve their goals in life. Matekwe further said that contraceptives allow girls complete their education by helping them to avoid various SRHR challenges.
‘’Young girls are prone to a lot of vulnerabilities in our society and among the key causes of such problems are unintended pregnancies. Girls are capable of attaining any high academic qualification if they are empowered to avoid the aforementioned SRHR challenges. This is the reason why we should give them a chance to freely access contraceptives’’, said Matekwe when he was addressing his subjects during the awareness campaign.
One of the adolescent girls who attended the activity, Debora Mwera, said that contraceptives are vital in as far as education is concerned. Most girls fail to return to school after giving birth due to a number of reasons hence the need to prevent unintended teen pregnancies.
The awareness campaign was conducted by YONECO under Get Up Speak Out (GUSO) Programme which is being funded by Simavi of Netherlands. YONECO is implementing the GUSO Programme under the Malawi Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance. The programme is targeting young people aged between 10 and 24.
