Teen Pregnancies and STI's High among Youths in NN

ouths challenged to take family planning methods ouths challenged to take family planning methods - pic by Steve Kalungwe

The Neno district hospital youth friendly health services office on Sunday decried lack of interest by many youths to access family planning services, a situation that has resulted in a rise in teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

The district's coordinator for the services, Antony Sandiyang'ane, told zodiak that in 2021 alone 1, 897 teens got pregnant and in this year the number has shot to 2,082.

"We are very worried with the figures as they are not on the positive side as we wish as a hospital, but we are doing our level best to control this", said the coordinator.

He nonetheless assured the youths that there is total confidentiality in the provision of the services hence the should not worry.

"The reasons for shunning the services include shyness and that some health personnel familiar with them might report to their parents, which we don't as it is against our ethics", he narrates.

Sandiyang'ane further says that in 2021, 2, 481 youths got sexually transmitted diseases and 2, 216 fall victim this year.

To counter this challenge, the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) through N'zatonse phase4 project is taking the family planning services to rural areas for easy access by the youths and adults for free.

Harvey Gama is FPAM district manager and says their organization is prepared to assist the Neno DHO in the provision of family planning methods.

"We offer outreach clinics in hard to reach areas as a way of casting the services wider. We provide both short, medium- and long-term methods to people from age 10 to 24 for free", said Gama.

Meanwhile, Bright Khungwa a youth representative has encouraged his fellow youths to patronize the services in order to safeguard their future.

N'zatonse phase4 comes to an end on the 31 of December, 2022.

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