Stop making sex a taboo': young people speak out on family planning
Patrick Segawa, 25, founder of Public Health Ambassadors Uganda (PHAU)
Patrick Segawa
Despite nationwide efforts to increase HIV awareness among the youth in Uganda, sexually active young people consistently have sex without using condoms. The high rate of teenage pregnancy – almost 25% – in my country can definitely be attributed to lack of information and access to contraceptives.
[In 2012], a survey was conducted near Kampala’s Makerere University which showed an increase in the use of emergency contraceptive pills compared with condoms. It seemed sexually active people were more concerned about pregnancy than about contracting sexually transmitted infections and diseases such as HIV and Aids.
And then there are young people who engage in risky behaviour with sugar daddies and sugar mummies. The latter shower them with cash, clothes and even holidays in exchange for their company. We even have reality TV shows where young people show their desire to date older, wealthier and successful men and women. But the downside is they do not have the power to negotiate condom use; it is particularly difficult for women and young people who have not received comprehensive sexuality education.
Contraception and family planning around the world – interactive
Read more
In 2015, we celebrated International Condom Day and the theme was condoms are cool. It was aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge on consistent and correct use of condoms among young people.
We carried out a flash mob with more than 50 young people at Ham Shopping Grounds, one of the busiest commercial centres. More than 77,000 condoms were distributed.
I find both religion and culture to be huge barriers in accessing sexual and reproductive information and services.
Because parents find it awkward to talk to their children about these issues, they often turn to their friends who may give them wrong information. And that is why, because of our peer to peer approach, it’s easier to open up to us. PHAU has more than 50,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and Flickr.
Francis Oko Armah, 23, programme assistant with Curious Minds, Ghana
Francis Oko Armah
Every week, we get a bunch of young people, sometimes there can be as many as a dozen of them, to do a radio show called Momlikoo (Let’s Partner). It’s very lively and animated, and at times it gets quite loud with everyone talking at the same time. The 45-minute programme revolves around just about anything under the sun that is important for young people including health, education and rights.
The show has been on air for 20 years non-stop and through fun and entertainment, we have been able to talk about issues that are otherwise considered taboo.
Now it is aired live and we get lots of calls from the youth as well as parents who are facing a similar situation at home and need to either vent or have questions they need answers for.
A lot of brainstorming goes into how best to air the programme and what would be the appropriate way to approach certain sensitive issues without getting flak from listeners.
Our commentators – all young people – can be from six to 16. We find that with radio reaching more than 5 million listeners, Curious Minds has made a huge difference in bridging the generational divide.
Paula Melisa Trad Mamod, 24, a human rights activist from Argentina raising awareness about violence against women and unsafe abortion
Paula Melisa Trad Mamod
Stop making sex a taboo for us.
I hold the church responsible for propagating harmful messages with just one and only truth and just one side of the story that they are comfortable with, and using religion as a barrier for young people in accessing [sexual and reproductive health] services. They say sex is only for procreation and it’s a sin if the element of pleasure enters.
I carried out a study to see how effectively the comprehensive sexual education law was implemented in Argentina. I did this three years after the law was passed to see if age-appropriate sex education was given to all children in educational institutions as promised by law.
To my surprise only a few schools had taken this law seriously and most Catholic schools began providing incorrect information by using a magazine called Saber Amar [Knowing how to love] for sexuality education. This is published from Ecuador and has the blessing of priests. Among many proclamations, it discourages use of modern contraceptives.
It is important to be respectful of differences, which I am totally for, but I cannot accept it when they talk about things that go against science.
Ayesha Memon, 24, student at Mehran University, Pakistan
Ayesha Memon
While they’d rather see you dead if you so much as talk to another man, parents have no qualms about marrying you to a complete stranger.
The barriers to women’s access to sexual and reproductive health rights and services in Pakistan are deeply entrenched in patriarchy, preferences for sons and a very distorted view of honour and dignity.
I want to make a difference in the way the youth thinks. I asked my teachers if I could hold a session with my university peers and talk about SRHR [sexual and reproductive health and rights] but was told it was unnecessary since mine was an engineering university and I was a business student, not a medical one.
My women friends often tell me they find talking about these things quite awkward even among themselves.
I realise I may be treading on sensitive ground especially in Pakistan, and these are radical thoughts even for an educated, urban young Pakistani but my family is very supportive of me, although my extended family say it’s because my mother always worked and was never home to take care of me, that I’ve become wayward.
When I was in my teens I’d often accompany my mother, who is a doctor and works in remote rural villages. While she worked, I interacted with girls my age and would always find them to be very different from me. They did not open up, were subdued and did not have any points of view; I want that changed.