Early Pregnancy and Unemployment-Leading Issues in our Community
March 1, 2019EssentialforlifewebEdit”Early Pregnancy and Unemployment-Leading Issues in our Community”
Rwanda is a small “landlocked country” with over “12,447,134” people (Worldometers, 2018). There are different issues within the country. On the side of the environment, there are land degradation, soil erosion, deforestation, and many more. Poverty, street children, and school dropout are among other issues that are affecting the country.
I have friends who got pregnant and left school. Today, they want to pursue their dreams and careers; however, they have to sacrifice as to support their children. Early pregnancy is one of the issues that the community is facing at hand. Many adolescents drop out of school due to the early pregnancies. According to the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, 17,500 girls who in the age range of 16–19 got pregnant and left school in 2017 (Niyitegeka, 2017). The number of young girls who get pregnant continue to increase which makes it a strong issue that needs a solution as well as attention. The number goes high when girls who are above the age of 18 who work as maids are included because there is a big number of them who get pregnant. The identified root causes of early pregnancies include a short time for sex education lessons in schools and limited access to health services or information. There is no sex education in the curriculum, children are taught about AIDS in Reproduction courses only. Some schools carry out workshops on sex education; however, they have a short time. As a result, there is no open room for questions and answers. There are youth centers in every sector; however, they have a large number of youth who are seeking their services. Most of the adolescents are not comfortable with going for the youth services available at the youth centers because they are afraid of being bullied by their fellows. As a result, they start raising their children with their low standards of living due to no stable source of income. In the end, this contributes to the increase in early marriages and in the number of people who live under the poverty line. Sexually transmitted diseases are among the expected outcomes besides the pregnancy. With time, the number of children who cannot go to school due to poverty increases since their mothers are not financially able to support them.
Women Capacity Building and Empowerment Trainings in Rwanda, Muhanga District
There is high competition to join the Kepler Program because young people believe they will be able to get exposed to different skills and be shown the way to take towards the journey of starting their own businesses. Students hope that skills will help them to get jobs easily. Besides, they seek to be entrepreneurs as to be the change and bring employment to others. This is one of the examples that shows that there is a high rate of unemployment for graduates in Rwanda. The rate of unemployment in Rwanda is at the level of 13.2%. The rate of unemployment among those who completed upper secondary education reach the level of 23% as those that completed tertiary education who are unemployed reach the level of 18% (Sabiiti, 2017). The root causes of the high level of unemployment are; small land compared to the number of people, neglecting some jobs, and lack of entrepreneurship mindset. The size of land is small compared to the number of people, yet many Rwandans are farmers; therefore, agriculture development is hindered by the small size of land. People have the wrong perception of work where less educated people are likely to get involved in agriculture. Lastly, there is a low entrepreneurship mindset whereby many people think that they will graduate and get jobs. As a result, skills are not used effectively since people will not be using them to serve and fill their respective gaps. Poverty will continue to be the hindrance towards development since people do not have jobs to help them to get money.
California News Wire Services, News Partner | Dec 26, 2017
All in all, students need to be taught entrepreneurship courses, awaken their creativity and innovation, and expose them to opportunities as to graduate ready to create their own jobs or with needed skills on the international market. Adolescents need to be taught sex education and bring health services closer to them as to reduce early pregnancies.
References
Niyitegeka, T. (2017, May 17). Over 17,000 premature unwanted pregnancies recorded in 2016. Retrieved from Igihe: http://en.igihe.com/news/over-17-000-premature-unwanted-pregnancies.html
Sabiiti, D. (2017, May 30). Unemployment Rate In Rwanda Actually 13.2% Not 2.5%. Retrieved from KT Press: http://ktpress.rw/2017/05/unemployment-rate-in-rwanda-actually-13-2-not-2-5/
Worldometers. (2018). Population of Rwanda (2018 and historical). Retrieved from Worldometers: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/rwanda-population/
