Amaze Aims to Amplify Sex Education Around Africa
To address high rates of teenage pregnancies in Africa, Unicef has announced a ground-breaking new partnership with the Amaze initiative.
The initiative collaborates with global organisations and harnesses the power of digital media to provide free and age-appropriate sexual education that is medically accurate, and relevant to adolescents and youth, with content available in over 40 languages.
The Amaze programme seeks to make a global impact of seeing that all young people are meaningfully included and granted the opportunities and avenues to pursue and realise their dreams.
The World Population Review indicates that over 13 million children are born to women who are under 20 years old.
Over 90% of these births (about 12 million) occur in developing countries, with African countries topping the list.
Unicef has advised that nations invest in comprehensive sexual education, prioritize girls’ education, conduct community sensitisation, promote health education and ensure sufficient medical infrastructure.
One key component of an effective programme is encouraging community-centered efforts. Programmes should not only focus on reproductive development (including abnormalities in development, such as primary ovarian insufficiency and müllerian anomalies), prevention of STIs and unintended pregnancy, but also teach about forms of sexual expression, healthy sexual and nonsexual relationships, gender identity and sexual orientation and questioning, communication, recognising and preventing sexual violence, consent and decision-making.
Nthabiseng Mogashoa, South Africa Mmoho campaign steer committee member, SRH advocate and radio host, emphasised the importance of reaching out to youth with crucial information, saying that young people are not equipped with the right information and experiment on their own to their detriment. She added:
Amaze’s tools allow us to reach the grassroots and educate young people in a safe space. However, we need all stakeholders – parents, peers and educators to get on the same page and share accurate information.
Amaze Africa aims to raise awareness of the significance of sexuality education and reproductive health and rights care for teenagers and to help break down barriers that prevent young people from getting these services across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The is aim to improve the well-being and living conditions of adolescent girls and young women living with and at risk of HIV in rural north Namibia.
Source : News24
