Upendo talks with girls at Engaruka Juu

UNWANTED PREGNANCY
Definition: Pregnancy that is untimely and unacceptable to parents, partner, and the society in general. The adolescent girl may not be physically, emotionally and socially ready to be pregnant.

Causes of unwanted pregnancies
Early marriage, unavailability of family planning services, poor knowledge of human sexuality and the reproductive system, fear or myths about contraceptives, misinformation about sexuality, parents avoiding discussion about sex fearing it may encourage wrong behaviors, cultural gender inequality coercing a girl into sexual intercourse, poor self-esteem of girls to resist pressure.

Effects
Young women who become pregnant face higher risks than older women of developing the following complications: Anemia, pre-eclapsia, premature and low birth weight babies, high blood pressure during pregnancy which is one of the commonest complications.

How to prevent it
• Developing essential life skills
• Knowledge about reproductive system
• Increase of contraceptives knowledge

ABORTION
Note: Abortion is illegal in Tanzania, but it is still a common and dangerous practice that kills many girls. Rape and coerced sex with vulnerable girls are also problems that often result in unwanted pregnancies. Girls and women are rarely empowered to use contraceptives.

Definition: The ending of pregnancy before the fetus is able to live outside the mother’s body.

Three types:
• Spontaneous abortion: Occurs without any deliberate manipulation to terminate the pregnancy.
• Induced abortion: Termination of pregnancy is intentionally performed; the reasons may be a serious maternal disease jeopardizing the life of the mother in which case the procedure is termed a therapeutic abortion.
• Illicit abortion: At high risk for severe infection, hemorrhage, or death. Occurs mostly in women who are young and unmarried.

Discussion
• Since girls usually lack funds and information to get safe abortion, they resort to illegal and unskilled abortionists who operate with dirty instruments in unclean surroundings. I advised them to avoid abortion.
• Consequences are many, including: maternal death, infection, injury to reproductive organs, disabilities and pelvic inflammatory disease of infertility.
• To avoid the problem from the beginning: Abortion is one of the most dangerous things a girl can do. It is illegal. Christians and Muslims have moral arguments against it. The best way to avoid the problem is to delay sex until you are socially, emotionally, and financially ready to take care of a baby.
• If you don’t want to have sex, avoid situations where you are vulnerable. If you insist of having sex, use a condom every single time.
• Unwanted pregnancy is bad. HIV/AIDS is far worse.
• Men sometimes make promises that they are unable to keep. Your sisters and friends know this is true. So don’t follow them into the mistakes they have made.

Upendo hands out sanitary pads to girls at Oldonyo Lengai Secondary school. More photos here.

Other topics
Female Genital Mutilation: Some primary school girls still have the mentality of being circumcised (removal of clitoris’ hood, a tradition among Maasai). I told them about the risks such as over-bleeding during birth, scars, and enduring pain.
Personal hygiene: I handed out sanitary pads and taught them how to use them and we talked about personal hygiene.

Some questions from the girls:
Is there any side effect to use family planning for us as youth?
What is homosexuality?
Does a circumcised girl feel sexual desire?

ADOLESCENCE

Definition: The adolescent period is the time when physical, emotional and social changes takes place with the growth of the body at puberty. The sexual feeling of love and being loved unfold then.

Need for information: At this time the youth need closer guidance on how to go through things in front of them but most African parents do not talk to their children about love and contraception because they fear it would encourage the youth to become sexually active. Even daughters are afraid to ask their mothers about sexuality and contraception so they find their peers as the principle source of information. They often take wrong information from friends due to low level of information.

Consequences of ignorance: Early onset of sexual activity can lead to the following risks: having multiple sexual partners, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe/illegal abortion, reproductive problems associated with young childbirth, social stigmatization from pregnancy or infection

Levels of awareness of adolescents
The levels of awareness of adolescent on reproductive health conditions may differ depending on their age and exposure; these levels have divided into four categories
Level one: Many adolescents are categorized by ignorance or by a who-cares attitude towards high risk sexual behavior. They are not yet aware enough to change their behavior.
Level two: Are those who have some knowledge of the risky situations and behaviors, but are not ready to take action.
Level three: Are also aware of their risky behaviors and are ready to take the action, but do not go all the way to take action. Many avoid risky behavior, but only part of the time when it’s convenient.
Level four: People have not only knowledge and awareness but have undergone attitudinal and behavioral changes. Such young people are actively involved in fighting risky sexual behaviors and gender imbalances. I advised the girls to be in level four.

An Oldonyo Lengai student asks a question during an Empowered Girls meeting.

Discussion

We discussed things which adolescent see as positive to them which are to be assertive, to love and be loved, to value virginity, controlling sexual desire, desire to display beauty, need to attract boys, desire to marry and establish a family, and others.

We also addressed risks and consequences, including: Unwanted pregnancy, abortion, unsafe sexual behaviors, sexual transmitted disease and HIV/AIDS, rape, prostitution, false perception of sexuality, multiple sexual partners. You should control your desire so as to avoid being at risk. Also, there are ways we can avoid risky situations.

Next in Part Two: Pregnancy, abortion, and risks.

Last week, Empowered Girls club at Enaboishu had a short introductory meeting for the new girls who might be interested in joining. After the meeting, 72 Form 1 (freshmen) students registered as club members. Upendo, our program coordinaor, and Mrs. Martin, the club’s faculty adviser led the session. Upendo shares this summary:

The club was started in 2010 by Kellen. We told the girls that in the club, they will gain a lot in life skills, most of which African parents cannot tell their children but we can, and we can help the girls learn how to overcome problems.

I mentioned good things available in the club, such as essay writing competitions, songs, drama, etc. concerning girls and society. These things can help improve girls’ English and life skills.

After the short introduction, we came to other points as follows:

Know yourself
I told the girls: Know who you are and what you are supposed to do as students, and that this is the only way to reach your goals. By knowing yourselves (understanding self-image and self-esteem) you can avoid liars. You are each so special, more than diamonds, so every girl needs to take care of herself.

Relationship and studies
I said: There is a time for everything. Doing things at the wrong time will bring you into problems. You are at school for learning and nothing else. True love is from your parents and guardians who pay your school fees. All others who attempt to tell you that they love you are big liars. They only destroy your future and leave you with no way forward.

Mrs. Martin added: Most Form 1 (freshmen) girls are lied to by the upper classes because they are so young and naive. Older boys/men buy them chips of 200 shillings ($0.18 US) that was given by their parents, and somehow girls think they have gotten a boy who loves them. Joining EG club will equip you with tricks to answer the men who think they have better words with which to trick you.

Friend selection
Mrs. Martin said: Girls, be aware of the kinds of friends you keep. Let your good behaviors change others, and don’t let others’ bad behaviors change yours. Many students come to school behaving good, but they change. You come here alone and you will go back home alone, so be careful.

The government this year decided to lower the bar for entrance into advanced-level schools. It’s essentially an expansion of its O-level policy from 2005 that saw a dramatic rise in the number of students in secondary school, and a dramatic drop in the quality of education. Now, more students have been accepted to government A-level schools, meaning they will pay much less than those who go to private schools. Thus, the number of students at some private-school a-level sections has been halved. Now those private schools are stuck with a choice: Lower admission requirements, raise school fees, or shut down their A-levels. The result is that A-level scores in both government and private schools will go down, following the trend started around 2007 in O-level schools.

Here’s the danger: As dominos fall, the ability of university students decreases, more graduates lack skills for the workforce leaving them unemployed and in debt, professional jobs are taken by the few who are educated in elite schools and foreigners. Urbanization continues, but unskilled jobs in cities are few. Income inequality widens, exposing dangerous social problems.

Tanzania is not in for a revolution or big social unrest. Yet. But if the education system continues on its current trajectory, we’re going to have an ugly situation in our smiliing, peaceful country within a generation.

Two things to know about economic/social upheavals in Africa:

1. Groups that are vulnerable in good times take the brunt of the problems in bad times. That means women and children are the first and the worst to be hit.

2. Empowering women and children is the most effective way to protect families against the shocks that come with those upheavals.

Boarding is ideal and keeps students in a learning environment 24/7, but many families can’t afford to pay room & board. Most schools in the country are boarding, but some schools have no dormitories. Others, such as our partner school Enaboishu, are mixed. Our program coordinator Upendo talked with three girls there about the problems they face as day students.

1. Elizabeth Maiko
Elizabeth is a Form 4 student. She is coming from Kijenge, which requires her to use two public buses and a 2-kilometer walk to get to school. She is in day because her parents could not afford boarding. Eliza fails to come to school on time because of the distance from home to school, transport problems, and chores at home she has to help her parents with before school. Here is how Elizabeth outlined her problems:

Transport
This is the big obstacle to her success because the conductors can refuse to take students. They sometimes take only few, so she has to wait till she gets the chance. (note: in the public transport system, students in school uniform are only required to pay 1/3 of the usual bus fare for adults. Conductors often refuse to let students board, instead letting the bus fill up with adults and leaving the students stranded until a kind or desperate conductor comes along.)

Rainy season
During the rainy season Elizabeth doesn’t want to come to school because she arrives cold and wet and she cannot have enough concentration in class.

Disturbances from men
Some men seduce her and others flirt. If she keeps quiet and does not flirt back she gets insults. Elizabeth says, “To avoid to be insulted I have to answer their greetings or anything they ask and continue with my activities”.

At home Elizabeth has a very distracting environment with noises and so many other people who are there, making it hard to concentrate on homework. Whereby a boarding student cannot get time for all those.

At school, she gets punishment for coming late and low performance due to lack of enough time to study. The girl use the time she gets at school to study so as to improve her studies.

2. Devina Ernest
Next was Devina, a Form 1 student from Usa River. The girl faces the same problems of transport where she has to pay as an adult (500 sh, or $0.30 US) instead of as a student. She says, “ I am not getting enough time to study, because I have a lot of activities to do at home”. Devina is only three months into her first year.

3. Loveness Gerald
Loveness is a Form 2 student, living at Engosengiu. Her home area is very far from school, she has to use two cars and walk a long distance before reaching school. The girl faces similar problems like transport: Loveness faces the hard time on the way to school due to discrimination by bus drivers and conductors. Even when she leaves home early, she can use one or two hours waiting for transport. She says students can be also packed into the bus like luggage and the roads are rough so she gets to school/home tired.

The transport became more difficult to her because of the behavior of some of conductors and bus drivers who use the opportunity to get the students for the aim of destroying their future. Loveness says, “They seduce you. If you refuse, they don’t take you. Only those older drivers take us, but the young ones may not accept to take you.” She says it is better to come late to school than to accept the conductors’ advances just to get transport.

During rainy seasons (March through May) Loveness says walking long ways in the rain causes problems. Sometimes she gets fever and low concentration in class.

At home the girl does not have many activities to work on so she has enough time to study. Her only cry is transport.

In general, the girls say they make sure any free time at school is used to study.

Being in America helped me to make a step beyond. I learnt that it is important to do what I think is right and not what people want me to do. Being in America made me to realize what was in me that I never knew about. Also the program that I went for(youth leadership program) helped me in overcoming limiting beliefs – those that say I can’t do it , I’m a loser and others. I realized that no one can ever make another’s story and only you can create a story about yourself. America helped me on how to manage my time and showed me the advantages of having good time management. America, together with the program and the people I met when I was there, helped me have an open and wide mind that can think deeply about a matter, imagine, and create.