NGO calls for increased access to sex education for adolescents
NAN-HG-8
Adolescents
By Vivian Ihechu
Lagos, Nov.1, 2017 (NAN) An NGO, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI 2), on Wednesday called for increased access to information on unsafe sex for adolescents to reduce its accompanying consequences.
Dr Omasanjuwa Edun, the Lagos State Team Leader, NURHI 2, made the call at a meeting on “Net Mapping of Adolescents and Youth Family Planning Situation in Lagos State” held in Lagos.
Edun said that unsafe sex was a common practice among youths, which resulted in unintended pregnancy that ends in unsafe abortion and its complications.
Edun said that increased information on safe sex and family planning would address unsafe sex and teenage pregnancy which have been identified as important maternal and public health challenges.
“Currently, about one quarter of Nigerian adolescents are sexually active, with the age of sexual debut ranging from 10 to 15 years.
“There is need for teenagers to know how to guard against unwanted circumstances such as unwanted pregnancy to secure their future.
“Family planning is not only meant for the married, but in the real sense of it, it is for every sexually active person not ready to bear children at that particular point in time.
“Thus, when teenagers who are sexually active cannot be convinced to abstain from sex, they should be armed with information on the implications of sexual intercourse.
“Family planning should also be recommended to them.
“So, we have to start educating them on time to have the knowledge of family planning so that when they find themselves in such situations they will be able to prevent unwanted pregnancies,’’ Edun said.
He said that adolescent pregnancy had become a daunting problem in Nigeria.
“Studies have shown the prevalence of unintended pregnancy among adolescents to be 23 per cent in the West, 36 per cent in the South and 26 per cent in the North-Central.
“The inability of adolescents to access not just contraceptives but the necessary information when needed has also been found to be responsible for the unintended pregnancies in adolescents.
“This often results in unsafe abortions,’’ he said.
According to the NURHI official, it has been projected that the population of young people in Nigeria will exceed 57 million by the year 2025, a large proportion of which are adolescents.
He said adolescents constitute an important proportion of the population of Nigeria, adding that they also have delicate stages that presented challenges.
Edun said that the challenges were sexual and reproductive health due to the developmental changes in their bodies.
He listed some of the dangers of unsafe sex to include sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies, abortions, interference with their education and child marriage.
“This practice exposes them to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and HIV with a prevalence of 17 per cent among adolescents in the South-East and 14 per cent in the Northern part of the country.’’
“ In South-West Nigeria for example, 27.4 per cent of unintended pregnancy among adolescents in a secondary school ended in abortion, while other studies recorded about 60 per cent,’’ Edun said.
He said Nigeria reports a yearly rate of 25 abortions per 1000 women and more than a quarter of which were from adolescents, resulting in unintended pregnancy.
He said that in the Southern part, about 32 per cent of the cases of unsafe abortion was among adolescents who had unintended pregnancy.
“All these pose danger to the lives of adolescents and contribute to the overall maternal mortality in Nigeria.
“Getting pregnant may not even be the most disturbing problem for some adolescents in Nigeria, but the fact that in most cases it interferes with their education.
“Evidence from studies has shown that those who are pregnant as students, either dropout of school or dismissed from school, majority of whom may never get back to school again.
“Others are forced by their parents into child marriage as a result of the pregnancy,’’ Edun said. (NAN)
VIV/COF/GOK
========
Edited by Oluyinka Fadare/Olagoke Olatoye