By KT Reporter
Communities in West Nile have embarked on holding dialogue as a measure of mitigating the worrying cases of teenage pregnancy and early marriages.
According to the communities, a high rate of teenage pregnancy is attributed to a lack of positive parenting and a failure to control and monitor the movement of their children.
Fedilliah Okirwoth, a resident of Pagwaya in Panyango Sub County, Pakwach district, says, community dialogue system is the best way in handling teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
She narrated how her counseling roles impacted positively on teenage mothers whose parents abandoned and were reunited with their parents and right now, they are given a second chance to education.
“I counselled teenage mothers who were abandoned by their parents after getting pregnant and what I did as an elderly mother, I reunited them with their frustrated parents and counselled both parties for forgiveness to allow the victims to be considered for second chance education ”, Okirwoth said.
Okirwoth who dropped out in P.6 in 1966 and got married in 1967 says, she had the passion to study but due to financial challenges, she didn’t make it but, since she valued education of girls, in 1992 Okirwoth started counseling young girls in her community of Pagwaya to attain their education.
Though Okirwoth is old enough to move in the community where she resides, she uses a wheelchair due to her old age, but still combs the community looking for abandoned teenage mothers and reunites them with their parents for further studies.
“Though I stopped in P.6, I managed to give a second chance to my firstborn daughter who got pregnant while in primary level, but because of that, I took the initiative to start counselling teenage mothers to go back to school”, Okirwoth narrated.
One of the teenage mothers who sat her Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) last year with her two-month-old baby narrated her story on how she managed to complete P.7 amidst personal challenges she went through after being rejected by the man who impregnated her.
Ayeronimungu, who is in S.1 says, with advice she is getting from elderly mothers, she is ready to complete her studies and wants to become a medical doctor and she advises her fellow young girls to embrace education because marriage will be there and best when educated.
The Program Facilitator, African Water Solutions (AWS), Westnile Region, Collens Pimer says, to address the community concerns on the escalating teenage pregnancy, community-based campaigns and sensitization programs are being undertaken seriously in the community and raising awareness about the challenges of teenage pregnancy to promote responsible decision making.
Pimer adds that according to the statistics obtained from Pakwach district, on average, the teenage pregnancy rate at the district stands at 23 percent, Mukali Health center III in the last quarter report, the teenage pregnancy was at 25 percent compared to the district while Dei health center III in the last three months (3), teenage pregnancy, 45 cases were reported at the facility.
She says to bring hope to teenage mothers, a number of interventions have been designed through positive parenting and skilling programs for teenage mothers which includes:- vocational program and secondary education where 34 girls who are beneficiaries of Girls+ Program are registered.
“Our intervention is focusing on vulnerable girls under the age of 18 year of age to be safeguarded against teenage pregnancy”, Pimer said.
However, Ismail Onegiu, a resident of Padoch village in Panyango Sub-county, says there is a high rate of teenage pregnancies today because children are being taken care of by single parents, making it a challenge to manage, especially the girl child.
“No more family conflict resolutions in the family today because women are empowered and they decide what to do, when there’s divorce, women forcefully take all the children from men, making it hard for men to participate jointly in bringing up the children, especially the girl child”, Onegiu said-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
