Masvingo Records Decrease In Teen Pregnancies - ZNFPC
Masvingo Province has recorded a decrease in teenage pregnancies in the past few years in three of its seven districts namely Zaka, Bikita and Chiredzi.
According to the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) office in Masvingo, Bikita recorded 2 085 cases in 2019 reduced to 1 200 in 2021, Chiredzi had 1 980 in 2019 and 1 300 in 2021 and Zaka has witnessed a decrease from 1 329 in 2019 to 1 200 in 2021.
ZNFPC Provincial marketing and Communications Officer Herbert Chikosi attributed the downward trend for the province to efforts from ZNFPC and partners like the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, SolidaMed and Ministry of Health and Child Care. Said Chikosi:
It is our commitment as Zimbabwe to ensure that we stay within the vision that every pregnancy is wanted.
It’s our commitment to improve awareness of contraception with more emphasis on enabling young people to make informed decisions on sexual reproductive health.
As a province, our effort has been to fight child marriages and teenage pregnancies. There is a significant improvement in terms of access to contraceptives amongst young people.
We were targeting four districts namely Zaka, Bikita and Chiredzi as well as Masvingo from 2021-2022 and based on statistics, there was an improvement in terms of access to Long Act Reversible Contraceptives- (LARCs) with the support from SolidaMed. We have also pushed for the girl child to be in school.
