The AIDS HealthCare Foundation (AHF Rwanda) has warned parents who do not understand the consequences of refusing to teach their children about reproductive health, thinking that someone else will do it for them.
The call was made on Friday during celebrations to mark the International Day of the Girl Child held in Gasabo district, anually observed on October 11.
AHF Rwanda indicated that often teenage pregnancy is due to lack of knowledge and wrong information about reproductive health.
Nteziryayo Narcisse, director of prevention of new infections in AHF Rwanda and monitoring of the ‘Girls Act’ program, said that parents should teach their children about reproductive health.
He said, “If a child is not taught reproductive life, she does not know where she will fall. Parents think that it is the responsibility of teachers to sensitise children about reproductive health related matters.
“Parents should relax, take the initiative to talk to their children, give them time and teach them about reproductive health,” Nteziryayo said.
According to Nteziryayo, there are rumors often mentioned about reproductive health, so that a child who feels that his/her parents are hiding from them is very bad.
He said, “There are many children who know that a girl with a beautiful face can be saved by having sex, many girls are trapped there. It is not a boy who will teach your child, you as a parent should teach him so that he can make his own decisions.
He said that not talking about the girl child at an early stage leading to pregnancy due to lack of knowledge, is a great loss for the country.
He said, “There are those who don’t go to school, there are those who are broken in their families, those who give birth to children who are orphans, there is a lot that can be mourned for these unplanned wombs.”
Patricie Mukangarambe, an employee in the city of Kigali in charge of public health, said that a country with a well-cared-for girl has a better tomorrow.
She said, “The girl child is the foundation of the country’s development because she is the mother of the future, she is the one who will raise Rwanda.”
Statistics from the Ministry of Equality and Community Development (MIGEPROF) show that 23 thousand teenagers under the age of 18 aborted in 2021.