Last year there was uproar about the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education’s new policy of allowing expecting teenagers parental leave from school. This year the National Aids Council has proposed the introduction of condoms into schools as a way of fighting HIV/AIDS. This has also been met by a public outcry. Even organisations purporting to represent the best interests of young people are in denial about teenagers having sex.

Newsday quotes Programmes director for Justice for Children Trust, Caleb Mutandwa as saying: “I think for us as an organisation, seconding the placement of condoms in schools will be difficult to support. Most children in schools are young and the majority of those at secondary school are still below age, below the age of 16. What will they need them for?”

Youth Forum senior programmes officer Terrence Chimhavi also agreed, citing a lack of curricula designed to teach adolescents about contraceptives. He added, “Instead they should be taught about the disadvantages of engaging in sexual activities and be taught about how to abstain.”

The reasons why adolescents engage in sex are numerous and complex, but surely the most terrifying is economic. Intergenerational sex, where young girls have sex with older men for money, is a well-documented phenomenon. Several reports have concluded that consensual or forced sexual relations between vulnerable girls and older men – is driving much of the AIDS epidemic in southern Africa because many of the men are HIV-infected. According to UNAIDS, four out of five new infections in Zimbabwe in the 15-24 year old age group in 2005 were among girls. More specifically at risk of infection within the group are adolescents, as evidenced by the MOHCW (2000) study in which girls in the 15-19 years age group had an infection rate about five times that of males in the same age group.

It is no longer enough to say that good girls or boys don’t have sex before marriage.  Our traditional systems are collapsing, the high number of illegal abortions and the disturbing media reports of children who have been sexually assaulted by relatives should be adequate evidence of this. If we are to raise an HIV-free generation we have to look at the problem objectively, without being pious or self righteous. Our children need a sex-education curriculum that is unprejudiced and presents them with all their options, not just abstinence. They need greater access to reproductive services without being stigmatised by healthcare workers. Policy makers and non-governmental workers need to address the economic reasons young girls are having sex, and to stop living in denial. It is irresponsible to prescribe solutions that they personally do not practise.

Economic progress and financial independence are crucial to women being able to protect themselves both in and out of the bedroom. Here’s an interesting article from Af-AIDS.

Safe Sex Elusive for Many Women
Siphosethu Stuurman

CAPE TOWN – Most women still find it difficult to negotiate safe sex with their partners. The problem is even more prevalent among women who are economically dependent on men. Some institutionalised social and cultural norms also fuel the challenge.

Ruth Mokoena, a 30 year-old married woman from Johannesburg, believes that age difference plays a major role in whether a woman is able to negotiate safe sex in the relationship.

“Women do find themselves in a situation whereby negotiating safe sex in the bedroom becomes a burden and they end up giving in. You get some ladies where there is an age difference between the two people and I found that the younger woman (most of the time it’s a younger woman) has a lot of difficult time convincing the guy to use a condom”, she says.

Ruth reckons that she probably would have had a similar problem had her partner been older.

“I found that with me and my husband we’re the same age and we think along the same lines. It tends to be much easier”, says Mokoena.

Moses Mabala, a 31-year old male from Johannesburg, also shared his thoughts on the subject.

“Sometimes men will force their way through to have unprotected sex. A woman will be given no opportunity to stand up for herself, which is a wrong thing to do”, he says.

Zuzimpilo Clinic’s Dr. Limakatso Lebina said ascribed this to a lack of safer sex methods that put power into women’s hands. She says this and other factors, such as the economic and cultural status of women contributes to women’s struggles to negotiate safe sex with their male partners.

“It is definitely difficult for ladies to negotiate safe sex. Unfortunately, the current safer sex methods that are there highly depend on the man to say ‘yes’. And with the relationships always being that the woman will be inferior for whatever reason, whether economical or cultural, then it becomes very difficult, especially in the dim light for a lady to say ‘where is the condom?’ “, says Dr. Lebina.

Dr. Catherine Ongunmefun from the Health Systems Trust also weighed in on the subject.

“There is the issue of cultural practises that are also not helping women. When it comes to lobola payments… As a woman, a man pays lobola for you and that means you have to submit to that man. It’s not going to be easy for you to say: ‘maybe, we need to use a condom’. And also, we know that in South Africa we have a very high rate of gender violence, which means women are being abused by their partners. You can imagine if you have been just beaten as a woman there is no way you are going to say: ‘Can we use a condom’?”, Dr. Ongunmefun says.

Dr. Ongunmefun went on to say that women need to learn to empower themselves.

“Somehow, I think women give in easily. Maybe because they don’t have a choice. But if you are economically empowered as a woman and you have a good job, you can negotiate with your partner. You have to find a way not to depend on a man in a relationship. As a woman you need to empower yourself, respect yourself and say: ‘If you are not going to use a condom, then I won’t have sex with you’,” she says.

According to Mbuyiselo Botha of the Sonke Gender Justice Network, often, men view sex as an act of power. With that comes the need to be in control. As a result, the manner in which sex occurs, including whether precautions are taken or not, largely depends on them.

“A lot of men in our workshops would say ‘condoms don’t make me feel like a real man’. As you go on to ask: What does that mean? It’s that ‘I may not have sexual satisfaction, I need to know that I am in-charge, in control and she must in fact feel me and hear me’,” says Botha

Botha went on to say that men have a notion of invincibility. They tend to believe that HIV and any other sexually transmitted diseases only affect women.

“There is the thinking that HIV it’s not6 a problem for us men. It’s in fact women because there is also a notion that women are loose, they have loose morals, they need to be controlled and they need to be contained”, he says.

Dr. Ongunmefun says there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to change the mind-set of men.

“I think men are generally ignorant, they pretend to know but they don’t really know! They are aware that there is HIV out there, but they never internalise the fact that they have to do something about it themselves. We see millions of people dying out there, but what are you doing as a man?

You are contributing to the problem as men by not going to test, you need to know your status”, she says.

Moses Mabala says there is still hope that men can change. He says there needs to be a new culture of fathering young boys to make them become better men of the future.

” Fathers can contribute to the whole society in raising their boys or their sons in a manner that does not only mean sex is everything… but also learning how to respect a women and learning how to be a man because at the end of the day it is us men that force actions on women”, concludes Mabala.

Online at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201106201605.html

There’s a bridal shop opposite my office. Every morning on my way into work I can’t help but glance across at the display of beautiful white full-skirted gowns and long a little to one day wear one on my own wedding day.

I know many women who have married for love. The grand illusion that happily ever after begins with that white gown has been cemented into the consciousness of every young girl who has ever spent a happy childhood reading fairy tales or watching Walt Disney’s Cinderella, Snow White or the Little Mermaid.

Marriage in the 21st century is not what it used to be. Before feminism made a home in Africa and the advent of industrialisation, marriage could have been interpreted as acquiring labour. Traditionally it is women and children who worked the fields. The purpose of marriage therefore was to ensure the material security of a woman, and through her ability to bear children that of her family. The bonds formed during a marriage ceremony obligated her husband to contribute towards the welfare of his bride’s family. Women were and still are conditioned to view marriage through this lens, that of self-sacrifice to meet your obligations to support the survival or your family through production by yourself and the children you bear.

In an industrialised world children are no longer necessary for labour, in fact they have become a liability, and the ability to bear them in great numbers is no longer as prized. As our economies have evolved, so have our social structures. Marriage moved to being about financial protection as women could not work and earn enough to support a family. So still they were married for security as well as for their families to establish a connection with well to do families.

Now, sisters are doing it for themselves. Increasing numbers of women are delaying marriage and their first child in favour of leading an independent life. As for obligation and sacrifice, those were necessary to keep your husband and financial protector happy, if you make you own money and the world is civilised enough not to try and drag you into a cave every so often, you can do without them.

So where does that leave marriage?

In an article published in Newsday, June 20, 2011, the National Aids Council’s proposal to introduce condoms in schools to fight HIV/AIDS has triggered nationwide outrage and condemnation. Some people argue that school children should be taught to abstain from sex rather than having access to condoms as a way of combating the spread of HIV AIDS. Some people feel that this action by the National AIDS Council (NAC) will encourage children to indulge in sex at a tender age.

On June 5, 2011, The Sunday Mail published an article entitled “Boys in sex-for-favours with teachers” based on a survey which was conducted by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. In the report SAfAIDS also launched its program “Scaling up access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescents and young people” in partnership the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, and Zimbabwean civic organisations like Women’s Action Group (Wag), Padare/Enkundleni, SayWhat and Patsime Trust.

This report by the Ministry clearly shows that our school children are now sexually active at a tender age especially in high schools. By denying school children access to condoms, isn’t it a fact that these children will be more exposed to HIV/AIDS? Should we support the NAC to go ahead and distribute condoms to our children at schools?

In 1976 thousands of black school children in (Soweto) South Africa took to the streets to protest against inferior education and they demanded their right to be taught in their own language. This was a protest against an oppressive regime. Since its initiation by the Organization of African Unity, June 16 of every year is a day a day set aside to honour those who were killed and for the courage shown by the students who took part in the protests. This years commemorations are being held under the theme, “All Together for Urgent Action in Favour of – Street Children”

It’s almost thirty-five years down memory lane after the tragic events in South Africa and the African child still struggles to access basic education. The economic down turn being experienced in most African countries has resulted in more parents failing to send their children to school. Access to education is no longer a necessity but a luxury to those who can afford it. With unemployment rates at above 90% the Government of Zimbabwe introduced BEAM – the Basic Education Assistance Module to cater for children (especially orphans) from disadvantaged backgrounds at primary and secondary level but more funding is still needed to ensure that all the children at primary school can have access to free education.

The withdrawal of education grants has left students at higher institutes of learning in   a dire position. Students now live a pathetic life on campus and very few can afford two meals per day. When students try to have their voices heard most of them end up being threatened with expulsion or incarceration. Student bodies in African countries continue to be persecuted each and every time they try to show signs of discontent with government policies.

So for how long will the African child continue to cry before s/he can be heard?

So let me get this right. POTRAZ doesn’t want to let Econet enable Blackberry services for their subscribers. And the Sunday Mail is intimating that this could be because Blackberry is too secure?

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