ADOLESCENT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

COMPREHENSIVE ADOLESCENT-CENTRED REPRODUTIVE HEALTH SERVICES; A MEANS TO MITIGATE HIGH RATE OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN EKITI STATE (PRT 1)
At The New generation Girls and Women Development Initiative (NIGAWD), the high rate of teenage pregnancy both in our dear Ekiti State as well as other states of the federation in Nigeria is a major concern.
Therefore providing intensive and robust reproductive health and life building skills for in and out of school adolescents is our major commitment.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence as the period in human growth and development that occurs after childhood and before adulthood, from ages 10 to19. It represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy. Biological processes drive many aspects of this growth and development, with the onset of puberty marking the passage from childhood to adolescence. The biological determinants of adolescence are fairly universal; however, the duration and defining characteristics of this period may vary across time, cultures, and socioeconomic situations. This period has seen many changes over the past century namely the earlier onset of puberty, later age of marriage, urbanization, global communication, and changing sexual attitudes and behaviors.
Key developmental experiences
The process of adolescence is a period of preparation for adulthood during which time several key developmental experiences occur. Besides physical and sexual maturation, these experiences include movement toward social and economic independence, and development of identity, the acquisition of skills needed to carry out adult relationships and roles, and the capacity for abstract reasoning. While adolescence is a time of tremendous growth and potential, it is also a time of considerable risk during which social contexts exert powerful influences.
LINKING FACTORS OF ADOLESCENCE AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY
Pressures (Peer) to engage in high risk behaviour
Many adolescents face pressures to use alcohol, cigarettes, or other drugs and to initiate sexual relationships at earlier ages, putting themselves at high risk for intentional and unintentional injuries, unintended pregnancies, and infection from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Many also experience a wide range of adjustment and mental health problems. Behavior patterns that are established during this process, such as drug use or nonuse and sexual risk taking or protection, can have long-lasting positive and negative effects on future health and well-being. As a result, during this process, adults have unique opportunities to influence young people. Adolescents are different both from young children and from adults. Specifically, adolescents are not fully capable of understanding complex concepts, or the relationship between behavior and consequences, or the degree of control they have or can have over health decision making including that related to sexual behaviour. This inability may make them particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and high-risk behaviours. Laws, customs, and practices may also affect adolescents differently than adults. For example, laws and policies often restrict access by adolescents to reproductive health information and services, especially when they are unmarried. In addition, even when services do exist, provider attitudes about adolescents having sex often pose a significant barrier to use of those services.
Unhealthy exposure to censored materials
The entertainment industry worldwide has not been helpful in the developmental process of adolescent. A whole lot of damage has been done by the media (both electronic and social media) as more young people are exposed to sensitive images and materials by the media. These materials
Weak Family and community supports to adolescents
Adolescents depend on their families, their, communities, schools, health services and their workplaces to learn a wide range of important skills that can help them to cope with the pressures they face and make the transition from childhood to adulthood successfully. Parents, members of the community, service providers, and social institutions have the responsibility to both promote adolescent development and adjustment and to intervene effectively when problems arise.
Poor access to Adolescent Reproductive Health Services and Life Building Skills
Ekiti State as other states of the federation has no adolescent friendly centers where adolescents can access robust, non-judgmental but friendly services and programs particularly for intermediary adolescents (those awaiting admission into tertiary institutions) and out of school adolescent who cannot be reached with the in-school Family Life and Health Education (FLHE) program.
To tackle the problem of teenage pregnancy each state needs to provide accessible adolescent friendly centers across the state where teenagers can get quality information, counseling and educative and behavioural change materials. These centers can be made friendly by engaging young adult as service providers at the centers such as mid or late 20s medical doctors, lawyers, social workers, Counselors etc.
Lack of peer and role adolescents models
NIGAWD’s experience working with adolescents in the State has proven that the one-off intervention programs only has immediate and short term effect on adolescent behaviour but maintaining a close monitoring contact with adolescent empowers him/her to cope and effectively manage adolescent challenges. Therefore we make it a duty at NIGAWD to provide adolescents in the state with confidential mentoring services FOC.
High rate of poverty
In Africa, poverty is a major vice that many pregnant teenagers accused of being the cause of their predicament. Inability of parents to provide basic needs for their girl child is a catalyst factor responsible for teenage girls going out to fend for themselves; this, coupled with the lack of comprehensive adolescent reproductive health information (i.e. Pregnancy Prevention Strategies PPS) leads many adolescents to unplanned motherhood and in turn results in “extreme poverty”
Adolescents should therefore know that having sex with a man or boy in order to make ends meet is not an escape route from poverty but a free visa to extreme poverty. As a result hard work should be the focus; a girl in such compromising situation could apply as a sale girl somewhere or get a menial job in a canteen rather than go from frying pan into fire.
This is a truth we sell to adolescents that comes in contact with us at NIGAWD either through our in-school adolescent reproductive health intervention programs or their out of school counterparts that walks into our office for information.
TO THIS END NIGAWD OFFICES ARE OPENED TO ADOLESCENT GIRLS AS A YOUTH FRIENDLY CENTRE WHERE ROBUST NON-SENTIMENTAL ADOLESCENT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND LIFE BUILDING SKILLS IS PROVIDED. FREE-OF-CHARGE