Young girls who fall pregnant in their teen years face countless challenges and often battle to afford all the things they need to take care of their babies.
It is for this reason that Empilweni – Place of Healing, in partnership with various organisations, held a fund-raiser at Lookout Hill in Khayelitsha on Thursday August 23, to make the lives of teen moms a bit easier.
Social auxiliary worker at Empilweni – Place of Healing, Thandeka Ncapayi, said the organisation had discovered that teen mothers were facing mammoth challenges and that through the event they were trying to raise funds to help cover the costs of clothes and food for their babies.
But she quickly pointed out that the aim was not to encourage young girls to get pregnant while still young, but to get them to understand the consequences of having babies at a young age.
Ms Ncapayi said they also wanted to equip teen mothers with parenting skills and teach them how to avoid unplanned pregnancies.
But most importantly, she said, they wanted to emphasise that parents should not give up on their children when they fall pregnant but should provide guidance and support.
Ms Ncapayi told the teen mothers that having babies should
not force them to drop out of school and feel bad about themselves.
Ms Ncapayi said many of the teen moms had experienced a lack of family support or come from dysfunctional families.
Among other things, she said, peer pressure and ignorance contributed to teenagers having unprotected sex and falling pregnant.
“We should start supporting these children so that we don’t find them dropping out of school.
To support teen moms, she said, the organisation was also planning to start a support group.
“Teenage pregnancy is prevalent in the township,” said Ms Ncapayi. “Young girls need to
be taught on how treat themselves. We should talk openly about
these issues so that we don’t
find getting teens getting pregnant all the time.”
Sive Nongemana, said her life changed completely after she gave birth in April.
She said her baby kept her awake at night and often she had to go to school not having had enough sleep.
She said being a mom at 18 was not easy and advised her peers to use contraception to prevent falling pregnant.
However, she said, she was lucky that her parents were supportive as she had feared they might not accept her and her child.
She said she had learnt her lesson the hard way and now wanted to focus on her studies and being a role model to her baby and family.
“I no longer have social time. I now have to look after my baby. I spend most of time at home. Things have taken a different
turn and I can’t make things go back the way they were before,” she said.
Bardale High School teacher Ntandokazi Bebi Manqaki, said despite them doing their best to educate and discourage young girls from being sexually active, the school had a high rate of teenage pregnancy.
For this reason, they invited related organisations to conduct workshops with their pupils.
Nolusindiso Maholwana said as parents they should have open discussions with their children because they could no longer consider talking about sex as taboo.