Duduza – The Nigel Cluster, which comprises five NPOs funded by the Department of Social Development, held a teenage pregnancy awareness campaign at five schools in Duduza on September 18 and 19.
The five NPOs – the Emmaus Community Centre, the Nigel Caring Community, Itumeleng Sechaba, the Oratilwe Community Centre and the Bambanani HIV Support Group – were divided into groups of five and allocated a health promoter to accompany each group to the various schools.
The Nigel Cluster LACCA secretary, Sonia Malinga, said they had also reached out to various stakeholders in the community to make their awareness campaign a success, saying they also partnered with the Department of Health.
“We partnered with the Department of Basic Education through the five high schools (Asser Maloka, Thandi Sibeko, Nimrod Ndebele, Esibonelwesihle and MOM Sebone Secondary School) where we conduct our campaign, with our focus on their grades Eight and Nine learners,” she said.
Malinga said their aim is not to disrupt school activities but to find conducive ways to engage with the learners through social behaviour change programmes.
“This awareness campaign acts as a prevention service towards addressing teenage pregnancy because it might have serious consequences for the health, well-being and future of the child and the child’s parents.
“Including the Department of Health in this initiative covers evidence prevention efforts because the children require an understanding of the problem, including knowledge of risk and protective factors, which the department is more versed in,” Malinga said.
She added that teenage pregnancy awareness campaigns are imperative because they raise girls’ awareness based on their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
“We educate them while protecting them from abuse. We stress the importance of pregnancy education while connecting them with health services.
“Social factors such as teenage pregnancy contribute negatively to the development of our society, contribute significantly to dropout rates, high substance abuse rates and cause an increased exposure to domestic violence,” she added.
Dolly Malapela, a social auxiliary worker at Emmaus, said many societal issues lead to teenage pregnancy, and their aim as the Nigel Cluster is to deal with and address those issues.
She said many teenagers allow themselves to fall prey to peer pressure and, as a result, end up doing things they never imagined themselves doing.
“Some attend events where they intake alcohol and end up making irrational decisions. Some have trouble at home and resort to unprotected sex due to high emotions.
“Our goal is to reassure the children that as NPOs, we are here to assist them with any challenges they face. We have peer support groups that deal with different issues faced by children,” she said.
She said they involve the parents in everything they do to deal with the root causes of the problems many children face.
Esibonelwesihle Secondary School principal Siphiwe Dintsi expressed thankfulness to the NPOs. He said it is sometimes difficult for educators to reach out to the children individually, saying many learners go through problems on their own, and some end up taking their lives due to being overwhelmed.
“I appreciate external intervention from stakeholders such as the social workers and other organisations/NPOs because, as schools, we deal with various psychosocial problems that our learners face.
“Such programmes allow the children to be comfortable enough to seek help from educators because many of them go through the worst. Some go through rape at home, emotional and physical abuse and often have no one to speak to about those problems,” he said.
He concluded by saying their involvement with organisations and social workers as a school will contribute immensely to learners’ well-being.
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