Bbumba wants teenage pregnancy top on agenda
Oct 29, 2007
THE Kampala Commonwealth Youth Forum should find a solution to the high rate of teenage pregnancies in Uganda, the gender minister, Syda Bbumba has said.
By Moses Mulondo
THE Kampala Commonwealth Youth Forum should find a solution to the high rate of teenage pregnancies in Uganda, the gender minister, Syda Bbumba has said.
In a speech read by Kyateka Mondo, the assistant commissioner for youth and children’s affairs, Bbumba, said out of every 100 teenage girls, 31 become pregnant.
Mondo was attending the National Inter-school CHOGM Mock debate at Pope Paul Memorial Centre recently. He said the high rate of teenage pregnancy is an indication that many youth in Uganda are having unprotected sex, which makes them fall prey to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
“It also implies that many children are producing accidentally. The children, therefore, live accidental lives and also give birth to other accidental human beings. We must change this trend in order to wipe out poverty,†Bbumba added.
Mondo revealed that a third of women in Uganda produce before the age of 20 and the majority of those pregnancies are unplanned.
He advised students to focus on their careers and warned them against engaging in pre-marital sex. Mondo urged legislators to enact laws that will punish young girls who engage in pre-marital sex.
He said many men who are culprits of defilement are sometimes seduced by promiscuous girls and, therefore, there is need to establish punishments for such girls as the case was in ancient Africa.
Mondo said worldwide, about 4 million teenage girls undergo unsafe abortions, the majority of whom are from Commonwealth countries and, therefore ,the urgency to include it on the agenda of the Commonwealth Youth Forum.
Under the major theme of ‘sexual promiscuity, the major cause of AIDS among the youth,’ and a sub-theme of ‘lack of creativity, the major cause of unemployment among the youth’, the interschool CHOGM Mock debate gave students a chance to present what they want the youth forum to discuss during the summit.
Students from 25 secondary schools demanded that HIV/AIDS and unemployment be top on the agenda.
THE Kampala Commonwealth Youth Forum should find a solution to the high rate of teenage pregnancies in Uganda, the gender minister, Syda Bbumba has said.
In a speech read by Kyateka Mondo, the assistant commissioner for youth and children’s affairs, Bbumba, said out of every 100 teenage girls, 31 become pregnant.
Mondo was attending the National Inter-school CHOGM Mock debate at Pope Paul Memorial Centre recently. He said the high rate of teenage pregnancy is an indication that many youth in Uganda are having unprotected sex, which makes them fall prey to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
“It also implies that many children are producing accidentally. The children, therefore, live accidental lives and also give birth to other accidental human beings. We must change this trend in order to wipe out poverty,†Bbumba added.
Mondo revealed that a third of women in Uganda produce before the age of 20 and the majority of those pregnancies are unplanned.
He advised students to focus on their careers and warned them against engaging in pre-marital sex. Mondo urged legislators to enact laws that will punish young girls who engage in pre-marital sex.
He said many men who are culprits of defilement are sometimes seduced by promiscuous girls and, therefore, there is need to establish punishments for such girls as the case was in ancient Africa.
Mondo said worldwide, about 4 million teenage girls undergo unsafe abortions, the majority of whom are from Commonwealth countries and, therefore ,the urgency to include it on the agenda of the Commonwealth Youth Forum.
Under the major theme of ‘sexual promiscuity, the major cause of AIDS among the youth,’ and a sub-theme of ‘lack of creativity, the major cause of unemployment among the youth’, the interschool CHOGM Mock debate gave students a chance to present what they want the youth forum to discuss during the summit.
Students from 25 secondary schools demanded that HIV/AIDS and unemployment be top on the agenda.