Nabagereka speaks out on child sex

By Anne Mugisa in Addis Ababa                                                                                                                                       

The Nabagereka of Buganda, Sylvia Nagginda has spoken out on child sex and gone on to ask parents to realize that their children are having sex earlier.

She addressed a session of the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Addis Ababa Thursday during which she asked men to stop relegating their parenting role to women, which she believes is causing imbalances in family life.

The discussion on sex among the youth delighted her, and so did the attempt at tackling the masculinity complexes which she said play a big part in youth involvement in sex.

For a decade, she has been spearheading a campaign on sexual reproductive health targeting the youth using culture, she pointed out, adding that her Kisaakaate programme addresses youth’s pressing sexual and reproductive issues

The Buganda queen highlighted the importance of discussing priorities and gaps for successful programming for the youth’s sexual reproductive health rights.

According to the Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) 2011, at least 24% of teenagers in Uganda fall pregnant, which translates into one out of every four teenagers.

The study also indicates that 135 teenagers aged 15-19 out of 1000 give birth, a big number of them in marriage.

Globally 7.2 million underage girls falls pregnant annually, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). At least 200,000 of them get impregnated everyday, with those aged 10 and 14 years most vulnerable to manipulation and sex abuse.

The UN body points out that 90% of these child pregnancies occur in a marriage situation.

A number of adverse consequences result in the situation, it says,  including these children dropping out of school, dimming their chances at getting decent jobs and taking care of themselves and their children.

The teenage pregnancies contributed greatly to statistics of maternal deaths and infant mortality, in addition to straining families financially in terms of health provision for pregnancy related complications, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

‘Vital information’

The Nabagereka said that the Kisaakaate has been advocating for abstention from sex which “is a cultural norm that has been lost over time”. She said that it aims at equipping the youth with life skills to avoid pitfalls.

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According to her, cultural institutions have a very big role to play in giving people especially the youth the vital information that they need to develop the life skills to avoid problems resulting from early involvement in sex.

“We are not just acknowledging the fact, but we realize that people don’t have information. So we as cultural institutions need to give that that information because the cultural voice is more believable in many cases more than politicians.

“So we need to talk,” said the Buganda royal.

The session that adopted a straight-talk format saw speakers lash out at politicians, parents and other adults saying that they have complicated the problems of the youth and exposed them to circumstances where they are taken advantage of.

Barwani Msiska, a youth from Malawi said that governments must act on the youth issues instead of politicking.

“We want real change and good effective programmes formulated with youth input because youth programmes without involving them will not produce results.

“As it were, the youth feel that they are treated as if they are irrelevant to the conversation,” Msiska spoke out.

‘Problem is sex’

Dakshistha Madhuka Wickeremarathne from Sri Lanka said that there is need to structure the youth into the system so that they are able to feel like part of it and contribute to realization of gender equality.

Another participant from Colombo, Maria Botero talked of a barrier existing between the youth and adults, with the former seeing the latter as judgmental teachers. This in turn inhibits the youth because they are afraid of what the adults think of them.

According to Kate Gilmore, UNFPA’s Executive Director (Programme), the major problem between the old and the young people is sex.

“We don’t want to believe that young people are having sex. It may not be consensual or they may not be in charge, but they are having it,” she said.

“So we as adults must get over our discomfort and save the youth from the pitfalls of sex. We need to grow up as adults so that we can facilitate the young people’s transition to adulthood.”

Gilmore argued that any culture that requires children to be married off or shows it does not care whether they suffer sexually transmitted diseases or die early because of being forced into early sexual activity, is wrong.

“Whoever uses culture to advance such views that push children into marriage and hence sexual activity is doing it for selfish reasons than society’s needs.”

The director explained that dealing with sex in young people should be a multi-sectoral approach including the health, finance and education sectors plus and political leadership because it is affects development.