The growing number of teenage pregnancies in the apomu kingdom is worrying and has led to the birth of a new initiative through the queen of the apomu kingdom, reports Vanessa Obioha.
Hundreds of academics from seven high schools in Apomu Country, Osun State, recently gathered at Alapomu Palace for the launch of the new initiative of the Queen of the Kingdom of Apomu, Janet Afolabi, entitled “Stop Teenage Pregnancy”.
Aimed at female academics in upper and upper secondary school, the initiative has worked to teach young women about sex education and replace their mindset about teenage pregnancy, which award-winning journalist Afolabi says is the norm in the community. One of the contributing points according to Afolabi is early menstruation.
“At the time, a 10-year-old woman might not have started menstruating. Perhaps because of adjustments in the foods we eat today or in civilization, some women today, at age 11, began menstruating. And once a woman starts menstruating she can be a mom even though her reproductive organ is not fully developed to get and bring the baby. That’s why we have vesico-vaginal fistula (VFV) because your organ is not fully ripe for delivery,” she explained.
A report published in BioMedCentral found that the teen pregnancy rate in Nigeria is 104%. Most of those pregnancies occurred in low- and middle-income households.
In Osun, a state in the southwest region, poor parenting and lack of self-care are the main points of the top teen pregnancy rate.
For Afolabi, the lack of quality schooling also contributes to the social problem, as many underestimate schooling in the community. This, she said, is to blame for the higher number of dropouts among female fellows and has truncated many dreams.
“If a 10-year-old girl gets pregnant today, it is already a challenge and she will leave school because of misfortune and rejection. No school will have to admit a pregnant woman because at this age she is not expected to be married.
“Some of them are trapped. They can’t happen anymore. Many destinations have been ruined due to a teenage pregnancy. In my loose tutorials with them, I found that women are even more willing to be informed than children. I see wonderful potential in them, to continue this spirit and pursue a career of getting to school after the best school,” Afolabi explained.
“During COVID-19,” she added, “many J. S. 3 students can just take their tests because they were already pregnant. “
He is also under pressure to want to replace his way of thinking, as many think that you can’t have paintings after getting an education. The final message she preaches is that women are financially independent.
Another thing that contributes to the accumulation of teenage pregnancies according to Afolabi is environmental poverty.
“They are infrequently deficient and many of them are farmers and traders. There are many farmland settlements outside the city. So, most of the time, the parents move to the farmland and stay for months and leave the young at home without enough money for the young to take care of themselves. Young people are hungry, now they are looking for food anywhere. They cannot afford school fees and are infrequently sent home for N2500. They are flogged so extraordinarily infrequently as if they had committed a crime. While the children search for paintings for the workers, the women have nowhere to paint and are therefore victims of the “Okada” riders who have money to spend every day. They can give them as little as N100 and enjoy it. Sometimes they would possibly be bullied into sleeping with them, other times it would possibly be of their own free will. Because they are naïve, they don’t know anything about sex education, they end up pregnant. They have no idea what a condom or other lifestyle advice is.
In addition to poverty, Afolabi said most women in the circle of relatives are also capricious. In addition, the social acceptance of teen pregnancy makes it difficult to curb.
“Sometimes, women don’t see anything with teen pregnancy. Sometimes they even do aso-ebi and invite their friends, organize elaborate baptism ceremonies. With such acts, other women are encouraged to follow this path. Some of them even borrow money to organize those parties. One of my students, an S. S. 3 student, came to tell me in aso-ebi that the woman he is dating had just given birth. He’s a kid I still teach.
With her new initiative, Afolabi plans to have an intellectual transformation for other young people in the community. Stakeholders from the Union of Apomu Descendants, education and fitness sectors joined Afolabi to inspire young women to dream more and spread the word about adolescent fitness risks. pregnancy.
“The irony is that we don’t have Apomu women in the highest positions, like the House of Representatives and the Senate, but other communities around us produce high-ranking women. Therefore, it is a step towards the adventure of the Apomu women who will be in the first places. We need to inspire them to get started and succeed, to enter politics and other professional fields. We may not be able to completely erode teen pregnancy, but we are laying the groundwork.
But to replace their mindsets, we will have to start with parents who are not in girls’ schooling. Therefore, Afolabi and his committee will have a monthly assembly with parents, as well as campaigns in the markets and neighborhoods to illustrate them. There will also be visits to schools to continue educating schoolchildren about the risks of sexual schooling.
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