This father-daughter duo knows that
open discussions, education and sexual health services are all essential to
reducing teenage pregnancy.
Francisco is a free-thinking father compared to many in his community. Where
he lives, in the indigenous province of Chimborazo, deep in the Ecuadorian Andes,
teenage pregnancy affects 15% of girls and those who fall pregnant are
typically forced to leave school to look after their babies.
According to Plan International Ecuador, many parents in the local community
find it difficult to talk to their teenage children about their sexual and
reproductive rights. This can leave young people, many of whom receive poor or
no sex education at school, with no-one to talk to about when it’s best to
start a family.
Teenage pregnancy free zones
Not so in Francisco’s family. He and his daughter Gladys, 17, are both
participating in Plan International’s Teenage Pregnancy Free Zones programme in
Chimborazo.
Stay single. Study. Protect yourself. You’re young. Make yourself a future
first.
For Francisco, this has meant communicating openly with his daughter about
the facts of life.
“I tell her please don’t have children or get married yet,” says Francisco.
“Stay single. Study. Protect yourself. You’re young. Make yourself a future
first. It’ll be a really hard life for you if you do.”
A report produced in 2017 by Plan International Ecuador, ‘Patterns of violence against girls in Ecuador’, revealed
that so common is the violence and discrimination encountered by pregnant
indigenous girls that many young women say they associate teenage pregnancy
with non-consensual sex, violence and “pregnant girls with black eyes”. Sometimes
parents are the perpetrators.
But Francisco swears he is different. “I don’t want Gladys to get pregnant
but wouldn’t beat her if she did, or shout at her,” he says. “I’d give her
advice, give her the benefit of my experience. I just think it’d be best if she
waited until she’s a bit older to get married.”
Sexual health services are vital for teens
In recent months, Francisco has been receiving training from Plan
International Ecuador to become a community health volunteer so that one day
he’ll be able to provide life-saving care to young mothers and their babies.
Worldwide, pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among 15 to 19-year-old girls, so
Francisco is learning to spot the warning signs in teenage girls’ pregnancies.
Things such as “the mother bleeding during the pregnancy or getting headaches
and stomach-aches, feeling dizzy. Or if the baby is born with a purplish body
or if it’s swollen. Or if it won’t breastfeed.”
Gladys, meanwhile, is committed to ensuring she stays child-free for the
time being. She’s one of 325 adolescents taking part in a fortnightly club
where she learns about sexual and reproductive health and rights, how to
prevent teen pregnancy, sexual abuse and STIs. Together with her friends, she
frequently visits the local health centre to pick up the free contraception
dispensed there to make sure they don’t get pregnant.
Gladys has plans for her future
She’s clear why this is important to them. “We need to study and finish
school so that we can go to university and have professional careers,” she
says. “Many women don’t study and just get married and then their husbands
abuse them.”
“If a girl gets pregnant, the parents beat her and she has to drop out of
school. She then stays home just looking after the children and their husband.”
Gladys already contributes substantially to her family – she gets up at 4am
to make sure there’s enough time for her to cook breakfast for the family and
tend to the animals before school.
She sees very little gender equality in her community. “The men go off with
other women and they forget about the woman they were with to start with and
their children,” she says. “They say it’s not their baby and then they don’t
want to have anything to do with us or the baby.”
This isn’t the future she envisions for herself. She would like to have a
family one day - but not until she’s achieved her dream of becoming a
doctor.
Source: Plan Cameroon