“I had a long period chatting with the female students, just the week before you came, on how they can avoid early pregnancies but I didn’t say much because I am their teacher and was shy to say some of the words directly as you people just did”, said Jean Nyirenda.
Having a female teacher can be seen as a burden because people believe that female teachers are loquacious but it can be a blessing in disguise because that teacher can be a role model to female students. This is the case with Mphongo Community Day Secondary School (CDSS), in Mzimba, where female students do not value the presence of their only female Deputy Head Teacher.
According to Jean Nyirenda, the only female teacher and, if that is not enough, the Deputy Head Teacher at Mphongo Community Day Secondary School, the presentations done by Progressio ICS Team Umoza at her school has made her work very simple.
Jean was quick to say that most of the times students fail to go further with education at Mphongo community because of their cultural beliefs, some just end up becoming pregnant because of peer pressure and a lack of information about sex.
“I have tried several times to help students at this school. I once involved a Social Welfare Officer to help me rescue some girls from early marriages, but it seems all my efforts proved futile because these girls went back to their husbands”, she said, adding that people at Mphongo value cows more than children with a bright future.
To verify this entire story one does not need to stay at Mphongo for decades, just a day gave me a summary of what makes Mphongo girls lag behind.
Sexual freedom at Mphongo is a non-existent topic. Male students would whisper saying, “If a girl says yes to a relationship this means she has said yes to everything, no need of asking her consent on whether to have sex or not”. Girls would not say anything, just a smile.
Sarah Shaba, a Form Three student at this school, does not hide that she has never heard about sexual rights. She believes that as a girl (probably a wife to be) she must always be submissive to her boyfriend.
Sarah echoed Jean’s words that some are pressurised by either parents or friends while others just do that because of lack of information on sexual issues.
When asked what she could do if her boyfriend forced her into sex, she smilingly says “before you came to teach us about our rights I would be quiet and life would have continued but, as of now, I would go to my teacher, social welfare or police, and report the incident’’.
One could wonder that students at this level lack information on issues relating to sex, but upon the Progressio ICS volunteers’ mention of the ways of avoiding HIV transmission and early pregnancies, students laughed their lungs out at a mention of ways to use a condom, but the silence died down when they heard that 88% of HIV in Malawi is transmitted through unprotected sex. I predicted that they started getting the whole issue of why they should say no to unprotected sex and why they should not be pressurised by their friends to do what they do not want to do.
Written by ICS volunteer Lucy Shumba
