All posts by Diana Motsi

Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Rights: Young women’s experiences

The resulting lack of knowledge and access to Sexual Health services amongst young people in societies impedes the majority of them to live healthy lives. Young people face a myriad of challenges, which include Gender-Based Violence, child marriages, HIV infection, amongst other negative Reproductive Health challenges.

Adolescent Girls and Young Women are experiencing a disproportionate burden and risk to HIV, for example, young women (20-24) have HIV prevalence 2.78 times greater than their male peers. An ongoing Zimbabwe mode of transmission study states that the highest number of new infections – more than 16,000 a year – occur among never-married women.  41% of new HIV infections are amongst Adolescent Girls and Young Women. Among young women, HIV prevalence increases with age, from  2.7% of women aged 15-17 to 13.9% of women age 23-24. One can attest to these numbers stirring debate and shock amongst health service providers. It is therefore vital to strengthen Adolescent programs to ensure, prevention, protection/support.

Katswe Sistahood, Simba Utano project is a collaborative project which aims to address the lack of knowledge and challenges on access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights services faced by young women and girls through fostering a well-informed and healthy conversation about bodily autonomy and comprehensive Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. The goal is to increase or extend structures of law that help and cater to women seeking Sexual Health services in mainstream spaces whilst promoting the uptake of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights services by adolescent girls and young women.

Katswe’s strategy is to create a movement of activists that speak out on the importance of women and adolescents’ access to Sexual Reproductive Health. Using a cascading model young women have been trained in order to cascade awareness on SRHR in their communities thus creating a web of highly energized advocates and champions. These champions help in information sharing and have managed to create diverse groups of young people who stand up to start conversations around Sexual Health in various communities in Mazowe and Goromonzi.

Kindra Chidamba and Kudzai Chakauya are Simba Utano Facilitators who are leading pachoto groups to elevate dialogues around Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights.

According to Kindra, most young people are indulging in sex at a young age hence pressuring others to also indulge. These young women are entering into sexual relationships without much knowledge around consent, condom negotiation and other forms of contraception hence increasing their vulnerability to teen pregnancy, HIV, and STIs. Most young women are, therefore “stuck” without education and unfathered babies. She shares a story “ A girl got pregnant when she was 14. As soon as she told the young man ( the father of the child), he quickly disappeared leaving her to cater for the child alone. She could not continue with her studies and her family is now taking care of her and the child. Young women like Kindra and Kudzi have been helping other young women with SRHR information and also referring them to service providers for immediate help or services. Kindra says her main advocacy message is around condom use because it prevents pregnancy, STIs, and HIV. The condom is the full package: Prevention. Protection. Satisfaction.

Kudzi, says, date rape is the most common phenomenon around early sexual debut. Young women in order to “sustain” their relationships indulge in sex without their consent. Most young women fall victim but cannot report it because of the relationship status. Many times, the justice system fails to assist young women and blames them for initiating sexual advances.  

Despite awareness sessions, many young girls continue to fall victim to unintended pregnancy. A few of them have dropped out of the program because they are now shy. It is therefore vital to keep extending support systems in order to reach out to parents, the church, and the school.

“When the SRHR awareness web becomes bigger, more young women can be accommodated and supported” 

#SimbaUtano

The taxing life of a young female college student amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

FEMINISTS ON CAMPUS PROJECT

Background and Context

As a 24-year-old woman, I would sternly argue that living under lockdown is the most emotionally stressful and physically painful ordeal any young woman or girl could go through. And this is because not only are we shouldering the stressful burden of trying to live through and survive a pandemic but we have to bear the bulk of providing basic home health care and taking care of all the domestic chores within the home. And worse off in my case, given how I proudly announce to anyone willing to hear that I am a feminist, I cannot complain about even the most arduous of tasks, like gardening. “After all if a man can do it you should be able to do it too”. That’s my brother’s favorite taunt! However, the fact that I work and earn some money enables me to contribute some around the household, therefore meaning I have some form of ‘collateral’ that I can use as a way to talk myself out of chores. Only sometimes! But what of the young woman who is still in college and does not earn a living yet? And those being looked after by other relatives and do not have the luxury of talking or negotiating their way out of chores? And those living with ill family members or depending on the salary of one family member? Generally living life as a young school-going adult female is difficult enough without adding the pressures and stress that come with things such as relationships. What more having to live through all this all the while living through and trying to survive a pandemic and secure a degree?

 The advent of the Coronavirus pandemic has not only affected people’s health but overall their way of life, including social, educational and psychological spheres. One such area highly affected by the pandemic is the education sector. Research according to a UNESCO report in 2020 showed that some 1.3 billion learners in the world were not able to attend school or university as at March 23, 2020. UNESCO’s figures show that some 80% of the world’s learners were being kept out of educational institutions by country-wide closures. As such, that is the operating environment in which Katswe Sistahood through the Feminists on Camus project had to work in. Feminists on Campus is a project which creates a platform that enables young women in universities and colleges to come together and discuss the issues that affect them on and off campus, hence, coming up with solutions and raise petitions where they see fit. Katswe’s ambition is to create a safe haven for young women on campus where sisterhood is valued and celebrated and women’s issues are recognized to build strong and vibrant movements that are result-oriented. The absence of policies to address the predicament which the girl child goes through in tertiary institutions and out of steered the commencement of Feminists on Campus in a bid to empower and enhance confidence and ability for female students to stand up for themselves. When we hold the meetings not only do we discuss the struggles they come across within the institutions but out of as well, to cover topics that include dating and relationships, how to secure internships and jobs, how to cope with stress at home etc. However before the Covid era these meetings would be held at the different campuses the project is running or at the Katswe offices but now they had to be shifted to online meetings.

And herein lay the challenge in our advocacy work and most importantly our young women’s education. The temporary end to attending physical classes meant students had to conduct their classes online. This was a global solution however only suitable and feasible to financially stable and technologically advanced economies. In Zimbabwe online classes are and were extremely difficult to manage in 2020 due to a number of factors, including but not limited to the fact that most of the areas in Zimbabwe are rural and do not have electricity reach, not all schools students have access to computers, tablets, IPad’s or smart phones and access to WiFi or the funds to purchase data bundles to connect to the internet. As such many, if not all students lagged behind on school work. During some of the meetings we were able to conduct online through platforms such as WhatsApp and Zoom, we learned that many students were not learning at all and those that had access to resources continued with school whilst those that did not were left behind. Some of the students stated that issues of sexual harassment began to emerge with some lecturers offering to purchase data bundles for them in exchange for sex. Those that have access to smart phones and computers complained that having a daily allocation of data bundles was also becoming difficult given the economic environment that has been brought about by Covid 19. Many breadwinners lost their jobs and some had their salaries cut therefore family heads are not able to provide all their children with the needed allocation for data bundles. This has resulted in many young women looking to boyfriends or older men “blessers” for aid. The challenge has transcended beyond failure to secure data bundles but failure to even have access to basic food.

The problems that our young women faced did not only begin and end with school but spilt over to the more social aspects of their life. Online dating became and still is the new normal and it was a challenge for most of the young people. One of the students said, ‘Not only are you stressed that you can’t meet your partner physically, but you become even more stressed to the point of feeling sick when it takes your partner hours to reply your messages. Paranoia sets in and you start to ask yourself who they might be talking to that’s taking so much of their time and attention. To keep them interested, when they ask you to “sext” or video call whilst you’re in the shower or send nude pictures, you are afraid to say no. You are afraid to risk losing your relationship. And the cycle does not end there, next you are being sent threats of how they will leak those pictures of you if you do not do such and such”.  Another added that. “All the while you are carrying out all the household chores and looking after your old and sick grandparents. You really will not be well mentally but how do you voice that to your parents when they do not believe you should be dating in the first place or they pretend that they do not know you have a boyfriend?” Another risk that comes with this is the fact that many young women have risked catching the Covid 19 virus by succumbing to the pressures of trying to see their partners by sneaking out the house and breaking Covid restriction measures on movement. This too has brought about the influx and rise of cyber bullying and underage pornography as many young women and girls are spending so much time online and are recording themselves in the nude, also risking being in contact with paedophiles.

As a young woman I relate to such concerns. And that is the core aim of the Feminists on Campus Project. To offer solutions to lived realities that young women go through. Some of the initiatives that we implemented to remedy some of the challenges our young students were facing included offering counselling services, wellness sessions on how to deal and cope with the stress of Covid 19, 24/7 free access to someone to just talk to about whatever problems or stress one may have been facing, referral to clinics to access contraception as well as data to attend school lessons as well as to have access to the meetings and sessions we have twice every week to check in on them. Some of the discussions on body autonomy and SRHR helped those who were caught in issues of sexual exploitation by either their lecturers or partners. Those facing sexual and domestic violence at home were also offered a platform in which to report such cases. These initiatives clearly offered some relief in the lives of these young women. Many reached out expressing how grateful they were for being provided with such a safe space where they could talk about everything and anything related to girls and how they were grateful that they could at least access the internet for school as well as having access to sanitary wear. Some of the students tagged the project “a girl’s best friend”.

It is from such findings that we may be able to adopt policies and lobby governments to ensure that students receive improved access to resources needed for online education and mental health awareness. Although the initiatives we introduced could not have a larger impact due to the restrictions in movement and interaction, the Feminists on campus project was able to provide a platform in which the young women could voice out their challenges and be offered some form of help. Due to the new wave and increase in cases, there are still gaps with online learning and sexual exploitation that many young women continue to face and there is therefore need for other organisations and governmental bodies to come in and assist the young women so that they may feel safe and supported.

Article by: Nadene Msekiwa. Project Coordinator (FoC)

Stories told: DATE RAPE

When she mentioned him, it showed she despised him, “He irritates me”, she said frowning her beautiful face. He wanted to just have a ‘talk’ with her and she kept refusing. Just like any other guy wooing a girl, he kept on pursuing her until she got used to him being around. The idea of the tall buffy guy stalking her got into her head and she became obsessed. She told me about him again, but this time around her tone had changed. I saw a difference, she really liked him. She could not admit it but it was written all over her face. The glow in her eyes, the smile she made whenever she mentioned his name. It gave her an uncontrollable excitement, it aroused her and it was obvious that my friend was in love. They got together. She said he was the most amazing thing that had ever happen to her, “too good to be true”. He was the perfect guy I equally adored, he made my friend happy.

Until she came back with a black eye. He started showing the dark side of him that scared the hell out of my friend. She was scared of him, his actions, and what he could do to her. But she stayed. She loved him. As a concerned friend I told her to leave him yet she didn’t think it was necessary because it was only the first time. She gave him a second chance. It happened again, hence I confronted him which caused her to have to choose between the two of us. When she chose him over me I was not angry, but I was scared for her. She had fallen deep and he took advantage of her. He was manipulative. The beatings continued and got worse, he would force himself on her. She confided in me and I told her that was rape. She could not believe her own boyfriend could rape her. She needed help, but the first step was for her to realize there was something wrong. Unfortunately, she was stubborn and walked away. That was the last time I saw her. The next time I did, it was at her funeral. I failed her. I could have done more. We buried her.  My friend.

Written by Opportunity Makanga @Female