THE past few years have been marked by coordinated efforts by Government and cooperating partners in a bid to eradicate teenage pregnancy and child marriage.
These efforts have culminated in plans of action such as the Adolescent Health Strategic Plan, National Strategy for ending child Marriage, and the Adolescent Health Communication Strategy for Zambia.
However, some of these strides have been overshadowed by numerous gaps that need urgent attention with the involvement of all stakeholders if society is to be free of such vices that are so endemic among adolescents, who are the future.
In Ndola District, like in many parts of the country, adolescents are grappling with lack of information on sexual and reproductive health which has given rise to myths and misconceptions in most communities, and hurdles experienced in accessing reproductive health services are even worse.
For instance, it is always a nightmare for an adolescent of Kamilili settlement area which lies on the border with neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, to access reproductive health services from the nearest Kaniki clinic which is about eight kilometres away.
To make matters worse, the road to Kamilili becomes impassable during the rainy season, making it difficult for service providers to reach out to the potential users of the service.
It is for this and many other reasons that the Ndola District Adolescent Health Technical Working Group (ADH-TWG) has vowed to leave no stone unturned in facing the challenges head-on this year in ensuring the lives of future leaders in the industrial town of the Copperbelt, are safeguarded.
The TWG comprises members of diverse expertise with District Medical Office (DMO) being the secretariat while Marie Stopes Zambia currently holds the chairmanship for the rest of the year.
Members include the church and representatives from the Youth Advisory Board, Police Victim Support Unit, Times of Zambia, Ndola City Council (NCC), Ministry of Youth and Sport, Ministry of Community Development, Society for Family Health (SFH), District Education Board Secretary’s office, New Masala Theatre Productions, DAPP Zambia, and local clinics.
During its first meeting of the year at St Joseph Guest House on January 18, the technical working group unveiled an ambitious plan for 2017 aimed at tackling some of the impediments in adolescent sexual reproductive health service provision in the district.
With activities tailor made to conform to three areas of focus which are to work towards preventing new HIV infections, addressing teenage pregnancy and child marriage, the multi-sectoral group’s ultimate goal is to promote the well-being of adolescents with respect to reproductive health.
According to the 2013-2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), Copperbelt province ranks highest on the national HIV prevalence chart at 18 per cent, while data at the District Medical Office indicate that about 6,000 adolescents in Ndola are currently on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART).
In addition to that, the district has a share of the countrywide figure of 16 000 girls who drop out of school annually owing to pregnancy.
With the lack of information and difficulties in accessing services proving to be thorny issues in the district, training of more peer educators from all over Ndola is one of the priority areas for the technical working group in 2017 as a way to abate the knowledge gap.
The TWG further agreed to engage various stakeholders to facilitate trainings of the young people in psychosocial counselling in an effort to build capacity and widen the spectrum of knowledge.
Another area of attention this year is that the corporate world plays a critical role in uplifting communities. Therefore, the group resolved that it would lobby local corporate entities to incorporate adolescent sexual and reproductive health in their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.
Adequate space is one of the standards for service provision as prescribed in the ministry of health national standards and guidelines for strengthening adolescent friendly health services in the country.
Currently, adolescent friendly corners are housed in clinics, where privacy is not guaranteed owing to lack of adequate space, and this forces most young people to stay away from seeking services from such environments for fear of embarrassment.
The TWG has pointed out that there is need for the establishment of adolescent and youth friendly health sites separate from the clinics so that young people can easily and freely access the services in a conducive environment without being subjected to any form discrimination or prejudice.
Consequently, the working group resolved to engage the Ndola City Council to let some of its unused community halls for the purpose of creating youth friendly health sites that will provide services such as counselling, comprehensive sexual education, and contraception.
Furthermore, the TWG is set to engage local traditional leaders, lawmakers and parents in sensitisation sessions on the dangers of HIV, early pregnancies and child marriages.
With this plan in store, some of the serious gaps that slow down progress to eliminate unwanted pregnancy and child marriage in Ndola will be tackled. It is therefore important for stakeholders to render support to the TWG in its quest to promote the welfare of adolescents.
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