Pregnancy awareness workshop

Jozi Ihlomile held pregnancy awareness workshop at Job Rathebe Junior Secondary in Orlando East last Friday.

Jozi Ihlomi is a community-based outreach project implemented in an effort to educate communities to respond appropriately to the HIV and Aids pandemic.

“We felt that it was important for us to reach out to schools and speak about teenage pregnancy as it is an epidemic.

“We normally do a door-to-door campaign but we have found that we don’t reach the people we want to reach,” said project coordinator Florence Tukula.

The pupils of Job Rathabe were told about the effects of teenage pregnancy and how to prevent it.

“We are here to educate the pupils about teenage pregnancy and the physical and emotional effects of having a child at a young age,” she said.

Rathabe said in many cases when young girls fall pregnant they end up dropping out of school and giving up on their dreams.

“We want young people to know that they are preventive measures and that teenage pregnancy can be avoided,” she said.

The awareness programme was not only aimed at the girl pupils but also the boys.

“We also educated the boys on the effects of being a teenage fathers and encouraged them not to pressure their girlfriends to have sex,” she said.

Jozi Ihlomile also gave the girls sanitary pads.