LET’S TALK ABOUT IT

 
“My people perish because of lack of knowledge.” One of the most sought after Bible verses has received its fair share of popularity over the years, mostly. People indulge in this verse with the aim of either mocking a group of certain people or empowering individuals to be informed, learn more and further pursue an education.

 The mocking aspect may not necessarily reflect a negative outlook but it somehow condones the latter, which is pursuing an education on something or further enabling yourself to learn something new.

It is particularly concerning to realise that even in this day and age teenage pregnancy is exacerbated by the inability of parents to engage their children about sex. In our country, there is still a lot of stigma and taboo surrounding this topic, which coincidentally is the main cause for so many social ills.
Under the headline ‘30 teenage girls fall pregnant during lockdown at Nkwene’, the most common explanation stated by interviewed parents is their inability or, to be quite blunt, reluctance to share information or engage in conversations with their children about sex. In actual fact, a majority of the parents stated this as being the number one reason their children most likely fell pregnant.

This in itself is a complete tragedy that needs to be nipped in the bud before the entire country is filled with young girls who are now left to either raise children on their own without any form of education or far worse, a serious increase in cases of mother-infant mortality due to an unexpected pregnancy at a young age.

Empower

In the early 1990s, sensational RnB or rap group ‘Salt n Pepper’ released one of their most popular songs ‘Let’s talk about sex’ to empower people to engage in the topic of sex such as the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or getting unwanted pregnancies. However, this song particularly focused on discussing this ‘taboo’ topic in a relationship context rather than freely engaging in this topic with others, including your parents.
Over the years it has been quite visible as to why this topic has to expand from just being discussed at relationship level and has to be also tackled in a family context. This is in order to enable young people to be empowered enough to have knowledge on the repercussions of partaking in sexual activities at a young age.

The World Health Organisation claims that teenage pregnancy is still a major contributor to mother and child mortality in addition to feeding ill-health and poverty.

A lack of education and further viewing sexual intercourse as taboo among parents is another large contributor to teenage pregnancy, according to the organisation.

Educate

It is paramount that as a society we engage young women on sex in order to educate them about the benefits of abstinence from sex, family planning and seeking early antenatal care for those who are already pregnant. In engaging young people about sex, parents should not see this as a way of maybe condoning sex but they should see it as an opportunity to emphasise the need for abstinence and that there is merit in delaying sexual debut.

As much as parents can push the blame to others for their children falling pregnant, it is actually their responsibility to educate their children on sex.
A solid upbringing contributes greatly to appropriate decision-making as young people grow, and the key attributes of a solid upbringing include being sensitised on the issues that could potentially impact your future.

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