Too young to be a mother. Too young to be a wife

By DOREEN NAWA

In Africa, especially in sub-Saharan countries, there are concerns with the high rate of pregnancy-related school dropouts. This plague undermines poverty-reduction programs, the route towards gender equality and the very idea of equality of opportunity in the region.

The practice is so widespread that it does not come as a great surprise to most families in urban and rural Zambia that, during the festive season, with its parties, drinking, dancing and fun, teenagers are more likely to become pregnant.

This is the case of Betty, 16, from the Monze district, about 200 kilometers south of Lusaka. She is the elder child of five. Her parents are peasant farmers. “She is the oldest of my five children and being a girl, we committed ourselves to ensuring that she gets the education. But today, I stand here devastated because of the state in which she is in,” Betty’s mother says.

Betty stands in isolation holding her chin and clad in a green gym-dress and black shoes. Her hair are shaggy, she looks pale and not as active as her friends do. Betty is two months pregnant.

When I meet her, tears are the first response. She asks me for money to buy her an ice block. Together, we go where we find a bit of shed. “Abortion is the last thing on my mind, despite being young and still in school, I would rather give birth and leave my child with my mother and continue with my education,” she says.

When I ask her how she got pregnant, Betty tells me a very simple story. “In 2015 festive season, during a party held in her neighborhood,” she tells me. “He did not force himself on me, we were attending a party together and we ended up finding ourselves at his parents’ home. The parents were out for holiday and there was no one at home. I just had sex with him that day,” she says. “I do not want to imagine how my father will feel, he has so much trust in me and he loves me so much. He wants me to excel in my education. My mother is trying to organize her relatives who can come and break the sad news,” she continues.

Cases of teenage pregnancies are no longer bizarre in both urban and rural communities. Several girls fall pregnant before 18. Many others get married before they are 16. Zambia, like many other African countries and the world at large, has not been spared from early, forced and child marriages.

The Zambian government, traditional and community leaders, the church and other stakeholders have risen against child marriages, a discrimination that undermines women’s rights, the right to education and equal opportunities. As Chief Ufwenuka says, “There is need for the Government to put up youth recreation centers in the rural areas where young people can be engaged in career building activities, while they are away from school.”

Zambia’s teenage pregnancy statistics put Zambia 3rd highest in Sub-Sahara Africa, with 143 per 1000 between 15 and 19. School dropouts due to pregnancy increased to 17,600 between 2013 and 2014, according to the latest Demographic Health Survey. Zambia has the 5th highest adolescent birth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. About 28 percent of adolescent girls become pregnant before the age of 18. Moreover, according to the 2010 census of population and housing, the adolescent birth rate in Zambia stands at 146 births per 1000 women aged between 15 and 19 years.

Now, pregnancy-related school dropouts have become a matter of public concern in Zambia. In 2014, According to statistics at Zambia’s ministry of General education, at the secondary school level, about 13,200 cases have been recorded; while 4,800 cases have been recorded at the primary school level.

As this were not enough, usually, girls, who leave school due to pregnancy, do not return to school after childbirth. In Zambia, the government has enacted a re-entry policy, but it has not been successful because of self-stigmatization and other students’ prejudice. A solution to the problem is imperative for the future of Zambian women but also for the country at large. “Schoolgirls who become pregnant have fewer opportunities to complete their education after childbirth and have fewer opportunities for socioeconomic advancement,” Mr Kaingu says.

PUBLISHED ON THE A-id website ON FEBRUARY 1, 2016- http://www.a-id.org/en/news/too-young-to-be-a-mother-too-young-to-be-a-wife/