Non-Governmental Organisations in the Northern Cape say the increasing number of pregnant teenage girls in schools is worrying.
It emerged during a local teen pregnancy gathering between the Education Department and NGOs in Kimberley that the number of school drop-outs due to pregnancy is increasing in the province.
A Kimberley-based 20-year-old girl fell pregnant at the age of 15 years after she was raped allegedly by a man known to the family in 2015.
Following her pregnancy – the girl had to drop out of school.
She says the experience has changed her life forever: “I was miserable. I was scared to tell my mother. I was scared. My sister found out that I was pregnant then my mother said she will accept my baby.”
The girl’s mother says they were devastated after her alleged rapist denied the allegations and that the child was his.
“I was very sore, very sore and shameful, because I have nothing, nobody to support me like to stand me by for anything. I’m one and only. I am a mother and a father in this house. I make peace jobs.”
According to Statistics South Africa – more than 45 000 births in 2021 were from mothers aged 17 years and younger. And 42 of these births were from mothers between the ages of 11 and 12 years.
Teenage pregnancy on the rise in SA:
Thapelo Mookwa from Batho Pele Non-Governmental Organisation says they are concerned: “We are appealing to the community to say let us educate our children while they are still young. Let us have education programmes and let’s work with the Department of Education. It must be a multi-sectoral thing. So we are saying to the department, let the NGO’s work in schools to be able to assist.”
The province recorded more than 5000 young girls who were pregnant from April 2020 to June 2021.
Concerns over high teenage pregnancy:
