Lugoba Today it rains!
It is always a pleasure to rain on this side, because it refreshes and our thoughts go to the fields of many farmers who wait for the rainy season forward, but unfortunately takes a few years less water than expected. At the same time increase the mosquitoes, which do not expect the evening to come out but it dare to anticipate the decline by increasing the risk of malaria, and the roads are more unsafe than usual. And even now, walking down the side streets of Lugoba - the only asphalt is available - which are usually just a pile of dust, we must be careful where you step to avoid slipping in the mud.
We are eight and we're going to the local clinic to get tested for HIV. ...
I arrived in Lugoba five days ago now and we'll stay for another ten. Fifteen days of training per cent of women and girls from some villages in the Bagamoyo District: Talawanda, Msigi, Kiromo, Mataya, Matimbwa, MSAT, Mion, Mihuga, Rupungwi, Mbwewe, Kifuleta, Kimange.
One of the main objectives of the project where I took part is easy, following a multi-sectoral approach, the acquisition of improved skills and knowledge of the local population with respect to the serious problem of HIV / AIDS, particularly to help women and girls to improve their living conditions. The special attention to women is linked to the fact that the vulnerability of women and girls, caused by the poverty in which they are forced to live but also by gender discrimination and violence, economic dependence, some traditional practices and the low level of education , makes them among those most at risk of infection. The support is given to women and girls through revolving funds that allow them to start small businesses, the project also provides support to girls who are hosted every year in some colleges in the country, where they have the opportunity to attend professional training courses . The basic idea is economic independence, as well as a higher educational level, may make them more aware and less subject to the risk of contracting the virus, transmitted in most cases discovered during sex. In fact the theme of sexuality Tanzania appears to be a country in some ways contradictory. While sexuality is often considered a taboo, especially as most of the population, especially on the coast where we work, is a Muslim at the same time begins to be lived with light from a young age, without that adolescents have enough information to live with awareness. A collection of various studies of "Teenege Girls' Reproductive Health Study Group "highlights, among others this: that there is a considerable delay in providing, in particular to young girls, adequate information on issues of sexuality, health and reproduction, or more generally closely related to their be women, which often leads them to take the risk of contracting the HIV virus or have unwanted and early pregnancies. The publication is named after a famous Tanzanian proverb "Haraka, Haraka, Haina Baraka," "the rush is not blessed," and stressed that the disintegration of family values \u200b\u200band the community did come under the joint responsibility of educating young people and especially young ragazze su questi temi delicati ed allo stesso tempo molto importanti. Anche se il sistema educativo, in seguito al processo di alfabetizzazione di massa portato avanti alla fine degli anni settanta, ha aperto nuove strade a chi è in grado di raggiungere i livelli educativi più alti, lo stesso sistema non è in grado di formare le ragazze piú povere sui temi legati alla salute e alla riproduzione. E spesso le giovani ragazze si trovano esposte e disarmate. L’educazione, che ha certamente introdotto molti cambiamenti nella vita delle adolescenti, come per esempio la riduzione del numero dei matrimoni precoci, non è sempre in grado di svolgere la stessa funzione che per secoli è stata espletata dai rituali tradizionali, per lo meno in molte rural areas. And here emerges in some ways yet another contradiction: on one hand is still strong, the role of some initiation rituals in which boys and girls are educated separately on issues of sexuality - rituals that often consolidate the already strong gender differences and put the girls in a subordinate position, even in the sexual relationship - the other, the rapid advance towards modernity has made him less of young adulthood accompanied by the "wise men" of the villages. Information obtained during the initiation rituals no longer meet the young men and women who have had the opportunity to study subjects such as science and anatomy at the same time, the theme of sexuality is treated only in a very theoretical and somewhat superficial. The missing link between tradition and modernity is often the cause of confusion among young people must find other ways to learn and rise to the occasion. In Boys' Views on Sexuality, Girls and pregnancies sociologist Juliana C. Mziray explores this issue and highlights that in the case of children the major source of information on sexuality and the peer group. Young trascorrerrebbero much of their time, often because of unemployment, the so-called Kijiweni (jobless corner), where the focus of discussions will be girls and sexuality. The information provided is not always are correct, and so easily spread beliefs such as that boys aged 14 are too young to cause a pregnancy, or myths that have contracted a sexually transmitted disease becomes a source of pride with friends, as evidence of an active sex life .
Instead many teenagers come into contact with the world of sexuality when they are still unaware of its very own body and reproductive capacity when it is not yet allowed them to marry, and for a period of life when premarital relations are strongly discouraged. Easily collide with two aspects of sexual strettemnte related to gender differences, still very strong in this country and in some ways contradictory (as they have been long and some are still in many western countries). While it is considered from an early age as a sexual object of young and old, the other living on their skin sexual taboos. The study just cited points out the obvious contradiction between the behavior of children, linked to sexual desires, and the way in which these girls are considered negative characters of a large number of premarital relations. If sexual behavior is legitimized and encouraged by the open peer group in the case of boys, it certainly is not the case for girls, whose bad reputation reduces the chances of finding a good husband. This is more so if the girl in question had, after sexual relations discovered, one or more children not recognized later by his father.
Add to this the fact that girls are often in search of economic support, but also more easily for some little need to give your body in exchange for some favor. Alala is 23 years and is one of the girls this year took part in our project. E 'wake-up, lively, and took very seriously the role that after formation of the CVM, is in its village and her friends in disseminating information on issues related to sexuality and the risks of infection. He tells me how many of her friends have got pregnant very young, as some are already the second son and how, finally, despite what most of them do not have a companion. When asked why he shrugs and a very simple answer: because they needed a soap, a dress, or simply wanted to spend an evening than drinking a beer with.
may surprise that after an unwanted pregnancy, there was also a second, and in some cases even a third. But it highlights how in Rosalie Katapa Teenage Mothers In Their Second pregnancies is a pretty common phenomenon. There are many economic and social conditions that fans are single mothers who become pregnant a second time, often by a man other than the first.
ignorance with which both boys and girls live their first sexual experiences often result in the spread of HIV and teenage pregnancy that force young girls to leave school and make them vulnerable in society . Most girls who become pregnant get early information on sexuality and reproduction when it is too late.
Silvia Volpato
Volunteers in the Civil Service - Tanzania
Volunteers in the Civil Service - Tanzania
