598 SHISELWENI TEENS FALL PREGNANT IN EIGHT MONTHS

MBABANE – Is the Shiselweni region cursed? This is because a shocking discovery has been made in that region that about 600 girls aged between 14 and 19 have fallen pregnant in a space of eight months.

 A majority of the girls are aged 15 years.
These dreadful findings were announced by the Shiselweni Regional Co-ordinator of the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA) Sharon Neves.

Neves was speaking at the NERCHA offices in Mbabane during a media briefing about the World AIDS Campaign, which was held yesterday.
Neves said the statistics were sourced from the Hlatikhulu Government Hospital and covered the whole region. She said underage pregnant girls around the Shiselweni region were transferred to that government facility since it had the capacity to cope with complications that might arise in the birth process.

Neves said the exact number of pregnant girls was 598. She added that out of this eye-popping number, about 60 of them tested positive to HIV. She said the statistics proved the level of vulnerability of the girl-child and there was a need to focus on their protection.
Education was pointed out as a major contributing factor to the high numbers. In her analysis of the cause of the high pregnancy rate, Neves said insufficient high schools in that region was a cause for concern. Neves stressed that in Gege, there were 18 primary schools and only a mere four high schools.

“This means that about 3 000 primary school pupils fight for about 1 000 high school spaces,” said Neves.
She explained that most of the young girls were affected in that transition period as they could not all be absorbed into the few high schools in that area.

She also pointed out that there were many child-headed families in areas like Gege due to the job opportunities available in that region.
Neves stressed that Gege’s economy mostly relied on forestry and as a result, most adults in that area worked in forestry companies in the Shiselweni region, while some were employed in the construction of the new roads. She added that some of the parents worked in neighbouring Piet Retief, South Africa, resulting in the homesteads being headed by children.

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