Article By Saveline Njeri
We are living at the times of great technological advances where sharing and dissemination of information have been made easy and fast, however, it is surprising that a considerable number of adolescents and young people have limited or no knowledge on sexual reproductive health, and for those who possess it’s often inaccurate or misleading. This is reflected by the poor reproductive health outcomes that we have witnessed with staggering numbers of early unintended pregnancies among teenagers being reported by the media.
The sensitive nature of sexual reproductive health issues and being shunned as taboo topics in the community continue to impose barriers in the progress of equipping young people with critical information on sexuality. This continues to accelerate cases of teenage pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the young populace.
In a bid to address this and foster better lives, the Center for Study of Adolescents (CSA) is making transformations through Big Sisters, on matters of sexual reproductive health. Being among the CSA’s Big Sisters, I have had an opportunity of being trained as a trustworthy, open, and non judgmental sexual and reproductive health champion. I now interact with girls where we discuss various topics on SRH such as contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases, menstrual health, HIV/AIDS among others including unsafe abortion.
The increased awareness among girls that I have interacted with has contributed to the utilization of safe pregnancy prevention methods, access to quality reproductive health care and school retention.
