When I had the whole topic of teenage pregnancy on my mind I had that whole ideology that the increase of it is due to the social grant, but to my surprise that is not the case at all. I had an idea that maybe if they cancel the social grant then we will see the decrease in number of teenage pregnancy, but after what I discovered while doing my research, I realize that it has nothing to do with social grants but the wrong choices teenage girls make and often refer to those choices as “A Mistake”.
According to the human sciences research council(HSRC) the number of pregnancies among girls aged 15-19 years peaked in 1996, two years before the child support grant was introduced, and has been declining ever since. In addition, only one in five mothers receives the grant. www.hsrc.ac.za/document-2027.phtm. I’m aware that teenage pregnancy is overrated and nobody really wants to talk about it but whether we pay attention or we don’t, it affects our society therefore is affects us and I believe that if we really take the time to think about it, we could come up with ideas that could make a huge difference.
Another issue I don’t get is how teenagers fall pregnant with all the sex education in schools. We know about condoms and other contraceptives but still fall pregnant and say; “It’s a mistake” okay let me get this straight, you know that if you have unprotected sex you will fall pregnant, you do it and expect not to fall pregnant? Whose fault is it really, are parents not talking to their kids about sex? Is it teachers’ maybe? Or the health workers are not doing their jobs well? All I know is this is a serious problem that really needs to be dealt with not ignored because it leads to illegal abortions and suicide.
As the African National Congress (ANC) slogan so well puts it; “TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE”. Let us not turn a blind eye, but act and save our nation.
a good point you have made there. yes, teen pregnancy is not entirely about social grants but part of the real reason why teens fall pregnant nowadays is mainly for that...if you can take a tour around the townships you will see a lot of young mothers roaming around the streets with nothing but lost hopes and dreams about their lives and futures and some of them regret having them. I still think social grnts should be banned but not for orphans because not all of them really made a mistake by falling pregnant at a young age and some of them have more than one kid,is that still considered a mistake? when you do it twice? I dont think so...
ReplyDelete@Ngwenya, I get that you saying falling pregnant is not a mistake and all, but I have to disagree with the;"I see a lot of young mothers roaming around with nothing but but lost hopes".falling pregnant is not the end of the world, it just delays a lot for some young people and don't get me wrong, I don't support children having children.
Deleteyes but most girls lose hope after having babies and are really less clued up about opportunities that are available for them after birth. i will tell you about my own personal experiences; i have a friend back home who is the same age as me and has two kids, i gave her application forms to apply to work at the bank and to apply to study here at UJ AND she wasnt interested and told me she wants nothing to do with books and is afraid to go to Sandton for the interview,tell me then,does that sound like an ambitious person to you? does it seem like she still has hopes and big dreams about her life to you? some of these girls are purely comfortable with the way their lives are like and how can you call it a mistake if she did it twice-two kids that are only 2years apart from each other? im not one to jugde but teen pregnancy is sometimes not much of a mistake
DeleteThese issue has been over and over been discussed, yes Teachers do play thier part with regards to Life Orientation at school but the question is are the parents doing enough to further reinforce the message that is being disseminated by the Teachers about the risks of being an young mother.Briefly some parents do not discipline their childrens enough they do not spend time talking about SEX, teenagers only talk about SEX when they are with their peers but they do not advice one another instead they say " GO FOR IT MY FRIEND TRY HAVING SEX ITS NICE" but forgetting the consequences of flesh to flesh sex.
ReplyDeleteokay Lucky so let me get this straight, you believe that all this is happening because of peer pressure? so if peers start pressuring each other in a positive way, then we will have less problems as far as teenagers are concerned?hmmm...
DeleteNo mother teacher, health worker can be blaimed, if ur a girl like you've mentioned and u playing around with fire u definately will be burnt, no mistake at all. But then again there is a question of teens being raped and falling pregnant.
ReplyDeleteMolebogeng what you're saying is that teenagers know precisely what they are doing and should not make excuses?
DeleteI know that when you get raped there are certain steps you need to follow. you go to the nearest clinic or hospital and there you will receive pills that will prevent you from falling pregnant and they could also prevent you from getting H.I.V. unless you're being raped occasionally and you're silent about it, then it's a different story.
Deletelast week friday i spent my morning and afternoon at the hiogh school that I went to talking to teen moms and some pregnamt girls. and I came with a conclusion that teenagers never really fall to be pregnant but they also don't like using protection. it is that whole thing of "it won't happen to me".ignorance is the reason why our society is the way it is ttoday. people know about things, they just don't care.
ReplyDeletethe girls that get pregnant need to change this mentality that after the experience there is no life.being a mother at a young age does not change the abilities they have. i know there are those who do not need change ,i guess its their decision
ReplyDeleteSome teens are really taking advantage of this social grant and creating a bad image to why this grant exsists. That is completly wrong because they making people look at this grant as a way of promoting teenage pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteguys i want to know does social grant really promote teen pregnancy ?
ReplyDelete