Help stop this atrocity

TODAY’S article on the call for counselling to enable young girls to resist become gymslip mothers, is shocking indeed.

Although not stated by the Department of Education, previous reports have shown that many of the young girls have been made pregnant by older men – often ‘sugar daddies’ and, sometimes, teachers.

With a large number of these rural children orphans or otherwise vulnerable, officials say they often lack self-esteem and have an inability to be decisive.

Some, they say, lack prospects and see little reason to live a life of meaning and purpose.

Counsellors have been told that a handful of sweets is often all it takes to gain the ‘wilful’ sexual participation of girls.

Stories are rife about ‘games’ with multiple partners being played by schoolchildren.

But on the other end of the scale – and despite intense efforts to incorporate sex education into school life skills programmes – teens do not seem to grasp the connection between sex and pregnancy.

Nor do they appear to fully comprehend the link between their present behaviour and their future lives.

Many of these young girls and mothers-to-be will already have been condemned to a future decidedly lacking in meaningful prospects.

Most will leave school before matriculating and will know little else than surviving on child grants.

Others may be drawn into working within the sex trade.

For some, the consequences are even more serious: unprotected sex not only leads to pregnancies – it could lead to HIV/Aids and consequent sickness and death.

It is also of grave concern that, given the presumed ages of the pregnant primary school children, there is not widespread prosecution for statutory rape.

We trust that funding will be forthcoming so that LifeLine can take on the challenge of equipping vulnerable young girls with the knowledge and resolve they need to resist sexual advances and empower themselves for a brighter future.