Family life education project for female adolescents in Temeke Municipality, Dar-es-Salaam
Date
2007
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Publisher
Southern New Hampshire University
Abstract
As adolescents mature and become sexually active, they face serious health risks and yet their access to appropriate information, guidance, or health care services is very limited. In sub-Saharan Africa there is a rise in overall adolescent fertility rates and an increase in childbearing among women who do not appear to be married and drop out of school due to pregnancy. In an attempt to rectify the situation one Non Governmental Organization, the Family Planning Association of Tanzanian (UMATI) has established a Teenage Mother Centre in Temeke Municipality, Dar-es-Salaam.
The root cause of the problem emanates from the fact that the young girls do not know that by engaging in unprotected sex they could easily become pregnant. The adolescents engage in unsafe sexual intercourse because they desire to have gifts, presents and other social needs from boy or men friends. Most of the parents could not provide their daughters what the male friends did. The young girls that drop out from school due to pregnancy differ and do so at different levels. The first group is formed by girls who are very bright and arrangements are being made to place them in secondary schools. The second group requires training in vocational skills so that they can be self employed and the third group are to be helped to complete their basic primary school education. A study conducted to assess the reproductive knowledge, attitudes and practices among female adolescents in the Municipality revealed that there is limited reproductive knowledge among young girls mainly due to limited access to reproductive health information. A Trainer's Manual on adolescence has been developed by the researcher in an attempt to fill the gap. Addressing this problem of female adolescent school drop out due to pregnancy will enable the youths to complete primary school and thereafter become socio-economically productive members of the community. (Author abstract)
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