By Meditation Mposi
Parents and churches have been urged to normalize conversations about HIV, AIDS, and sex-related issues with teenagers.
This came up during a provincial symposium on connecting adolescent girls and young women for HIV prevention, organized by MyAge Trust in partnership with Development Agenda for Girls and Women in Africa (DAWA).
Apostle Ngonidzashe Mutume of the Presbyterian Church said prevention of HIV among adolescents had to be advocated for in churches, saying it was better to have healthy sinners.
“It is weird for a Pastor like me to talk about ways of preventing HIV to adolescent girls and young women in a church, but the truth is that the world has changed and parents must adapt.
“No matter how we teach our children in churches to abstain, they still go behind our backs and fornicate. Parents in churches must be taught on how time has evolved and must be open to talk about prevention measures with their children to curb HIV in order to have healthy future generations and a bright future.
“It is better to have healthy sinners than sick saints,” said Mutume.
One young woman, Nothando Nyamukangaira, who was present at the workshop concurred, saying education was supposed to start with the elders who would then cascade it to the youths.
“I think our parents need to be educated on being open to their children about HIV prevention methods. For example, in terms of condoms, a number of parents are not comfortable teaching their children how to use them.
“Parents must be open and encourage their young adolescent girls and young women to use preventive measures in order to curb HIV,” said Nyamukangaira.
Another young woman said health workers were supposed to be easy to approach if people wanted to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS.
“Nurses in hospitals must be easy to approach and they must be confidential with our information. You find out that if you go to a hospital and ask for PEP, the attitude that an adolescent gets is very uncomfortable,” she said.
Tarisai Maregere from My Age said the use of activism and theater was essential for HIV advocacy and had been working for them as an organization.
“Using art such as drama, music, poetry is essential in delivering messages among adolescent girls and young women in communities.
“There are essential keys to know when advocating for HIV prevention: knowing the targeted audiences, knowing the goal, the channels to use for the information to reach everyone, and knowing the root causes of high rates of HIV among adolescent girls and young women in communities,” said Maregere.
Yvonne Ndoga from Pangaea Zimbabwe emphasized the use of new, emerging HIV prevention methods and urged young women to embrace them.
“Adolescent girls and young women are encouraged to use biomedical (the use of medical interventions to reduce the risk of HIV transmission) HIV prevention methods to prevent the risk of HIV infection as well as by people living with HIV to prevent them from transmitting the virus to others.
“There are types of biomedical HIV prevention which are Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), Treatment as prevention (TasP). PrEP is used by people who do not have HIV before they are exposed to HIV, PEP is used by people who do not have HIV and they use it after being exposed to HIV, TasP is used by people living with HIV to prevent it from spreading to their partners.
“PrEP has types which are Oral PrEP, a pill containing antiretroviral (ARV) that can be used if one is HIV negative to prevent HIV. There is also the Dapivirine Vaginal ring (PrEP ring) which is inserted in the woman’s vagina for a full month and replaced every month.
“These biomedical methods are given for free in Hospitals and adolescent girls and women are encouraged to use them to prevent HIV,” said Ndoga.
Several other organizations, including the Ministry of Health and Child Care, ZIMACE, the Ministry of Women Affairs, Jairos Jiri Association, and the Ministry of Youth, among others, were also present.
