Sexuality education; the missing link

Sexuality education; the missing link

Everything was going well for me but I was very ignorant about issues related to sex. At times when I inquired from my friends, they gave me wrong advise because they also lacked the right information. I got different views such as family planning (contraceptives) is for adults and married people; one told me that condoms cause cervical cancer. Another friend also said that having sex without a condom is a sign of love, while a different one said that you cannot get pregnant the first time you have sex.

In my Primary six, I got a boyfriend who was in senior two. I used to escape from school to go and meet with him. Whenever we had sex, we never thought of using a condom. Then, I started feeling sick every morning; I was vomiting a lot which made my teachers suspect and asked me to take a pregnancy test. It was discovered that I was pregnant; the head teacher immediately called my parents, and I was expelled from school.

Life was not easy for me from then on; my parents verbally abused and beat me all the time and my father kept asking who the boy responsible for my pregnancy was.

My boyfriend who was responsible for the pregnancy ran away from the village and I do not know where he is now. This could have been because he feared to be imprisoned or to take responsibility of looking after the child.

Throughout those hard times, VHTs and Peer educators who knew about my experience talked to my parents about and convinced them to take me back to school after I gave birth.

I was referred for ANC at Buluguyi health centre III and the service provider encouraged me to get family planning (contraceptive) services after delivery. I have however made a decision to abstain and put aside relationships for now.