The county government of Nakuru has appealed to parents and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who deal with children’s welfare to take advantage of the long school holidays to address concerns of the children.
The Director for Gender Celine Nkatha wants the agencies to give the children a voice to articulate their concerns since a number of them were suffering in silence. She urged the stakeholders in children’s rights to create opportunities for conversations and give them a chance to voice their apprehensions.
She said a number of children in the county are suffering in silence, and yet those who purport to care about their welfare, hardly ever give them a chance to speak out about their anxieties and how they would want their issues solved.
The director was speaking today at Bahati sub-county where she held a meeting with 200 teenage boys and girls. However, when they were given a chance to articulate their fears in writing, the revelations were shocking to the officials.
One of the boys wrote,’’ for a teenage boy, who can he talk to in case of sexual abuse, if his father is not available?’’
Nkatha said when children are encouraged to use their voices, they feel valued and supported and they develop a sense of belonging to a community that gives attention to their innermost torments.
Also, she said until the veil of reservations, hesitations, doubts, and misgivings of parents, guardians, and other benefactor reactions’ to issues that plague them is lifted, a lot might be missed out on the best way to assist them.
Apart from that, she said understanding teenagers was important for developing policies and effective interventions to reduce unintended pregnancies, mental health issues, and sexual diseases.
The United Nations Population Fund 2022 State of World Population report, highlights that almost half of all pregnancies between 2015 and 2019 were unintended. That amounts to roughly 121 million unintended pregnancies each year.
The report defines unintended pregnancy as pregnancy among teenagers and women who were not planning to have any more children. It also says over 60 percent of unintended pregnancies were among teenagers in developing countries.
