RHYTHM 93.7 OAP, EREFA ON TEEN PREGNANCY

RHYTHM 93.7 OAP, EREFA ON TEENPREGNANCY
Why do we have a lot of single mom’s in our society today? Why are there more teenage moms thanadult mothers? If you can come up with a good answer to these questions, then you have the antidote to these problems. We tend to condemn the act especially when the person is not known or related to us. In fact a lot of people see it as a shameful thing instead of a scary phenomenon. In Rivers State, if you take your time to visit some of the rural areas if not all; you’ll find a statistics of 85% or more teenagers with kids. And thenyou come to the city to find 65% of very young girls with the responsibility of motherhood. Even on TV! You see a program like “16 and pregnant”. As if it is a good thing. Majority of them are not up to 18years. Most of them are still in secondary school. How do we put an end to this social menace? Whendo we say enough is enough! It is time for us put our foot down and fight for the lives and future of our sisters, daughters and our future leaders. Now I’m not saying having kids is a bad thing; children are gifts from God and gifts are received in joy. It must be done the right way. Question is: how do we go about putting an end to this problem?
Like the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem half solved. Which brings us to the question : “What is the cause of teenage pregnancy?” Did some survey around town and lot of people had this to say:


1. Naiveté
This is one of the major causes of teenage pregnancy. Most of these young girls show extremely simple and trusting view of the world and human nature, often as a result of inexperience. They become easy prey to the wolves we have in the society called MEN (for want of a better word). No offence to the gender. I mean if a grown up man sees and takes advantage of a little girl then he should be called worse names (Not all of them are wolves though). These innocent girls are told stories of how beautiful they are and how much they (the wolves) care for them and promise them a life of fantasy that does not exist in this world; not knowing the involvement of going to men or the implications that come with it. Theyfall for the lies; end up with pregnancy, no father to the baby and no care whatsoever.

2. Lack of Orientation.
A lot of young girls fall victim because they were raised by single parents. Imagine a 14 year old girl with a 32year old mom without a job and a husband and most definitely no orientation of how to raise her kids. They let the children figure things out by themselves. Even though they see them doing the wrong things they are too helpless to proffer solutions. When these teenage girls enter the streets they practice unprotected sex because they have no idea how to protect themselves. Nobody taught them about protection, STD’s and pregnancies. There is really no proper guidance.

3. Poverty
This is the major cause of teen pregnancy! The level of poverty in our society is too much. You see a young girl from a very poor family trying to survive in order to meet up with our society demands. They basically struggle to live. We all know that a growing woman needs a lot of things. For this reason they go out begging and doing all sorts of things to make money which includes sleeping around with any man/boy who offers them peanuts. If you take your time and visit the waterfronts in Port Harcourt town, your jaw will drop, your heart will break, and I assure you tears will roll down your eyes at the abject poverty and the number of teen moms. They are everywhere! The average 16year old girl is a mother of 2 children. It is really scary!

4. The Fallen Family Value System.
The family is supposed to be the first defense mechanism, but wherethe family fails there is outbreak of societal misfortune. The family is supposed to be the first agent of socialization but if the family fails, the society will take its place and color the behavior of the child.

When you take a look at our society, what do you see? Do we have hope? A teenager who is not used to the word “I love you,” from her parents and a (wolf) tells her ‘I love you,’ it sounds alien to her ear but given that women are moved by what they hear and men by what they see; the girl automatically is drawn to the boy/man and before you know it… tori for town!


HOW CAN WE FIGHT TEENAGE PREGNANCY?
The hard truth is there is nothing we can do about it. A lot of us are pursuing our individual races. ‘Trying to make ends meet’. No time to look down and help.
Another truth is they teach sex education in schools but is it enough? Can we really eradicate poverty in our society? If the answer is yes then we can stop this problem.
Another thing I would like to add is the “Lack of Purpose Acknowledgment.” When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. Like they say; short vision is short success. When you can’t answer a simple question of where you want to be in 5years time: When you don’t know your worth, no realization of potential, no vision, you end up wasting your life and your time. Now there are 3 functionalities of time; its either you waste it, you spend it or you invest it. In relation to this matter our teenagers need to be taught, guarded, and loved. Our parents should spend more time with their teenage daughters. This means we have to start from where we are right now to help stop this epidemic in our society.