Instilling morality among the young generations is a better way to combat teenage pregnancies than allowing them to have contraception, activists have said. Last week, the parliament rejected a bill that proposed permitting children as young as 15 years to access contraception, a development that fuelled a public debate that is still ongoing. For those who were supporting the bill, the argument was that it would play a significant role in the reduction of teenage pregnancies, a problem that has for some time been making leaders and various stakeholders scratch their heads for a solution. However, some people, including senior citizens, have suggested that contraception cannot be the remedy for the issue, since teenage pregnancies, for example, are just a part of the bigger problem of morality. “Teenage pregnancies are a symptom of a much bigger problem. Not everyone who has sex gets pregnant. The numbers we get are possible for the unfortunate ones. We should address the issue of children having sex at such a tender age,” senior citizen Tito Rutaremara, said in one of the recent gatherings. His views were complemented by Pastor Antoine Rutayisire, who pointed out that the church has a responsibility of working with the government to have a multi-sectoral approach to addressing issues around teenage pregnancies. “We have to address these issues from the family set up. We all should work together and have an all-round approach to solving this problem,” he said. Rosie-Marie Mukarutabana, who works with the Rwanda Academy for Language and Culture, an entity that aims to preserve and promote Rwandan culture, told The New Times in an interview that morality is a better way to handle teenage pregnancies, since contraception can lead to even more issues among youngsters, for example, paving way for sexually transmitted diseases. Here, she noted that parents should be playing a key role in educating their children on the proper way of life in terms of dressing, behaviour, the friends they hang out with, and so on. However, she lamented the fact that parents currently seem defeated and have become on-lookers as their children behave in ways that they should not. “Parents have given up because there are many things that influence them all around. In the old days, parents were strong in teaching values to their children. And this was not only in families, but the community itself was responsible for the children. “Members of the community would always care to ask, ‘why is that child going out at night, what are they doing with such and such friends?’ and so on,” she noted, before decrying the fact that today, a number of parents and communities seem to have abandoned this because of the western culture influences, for example. In her opinion, youngsters should not have sex, but should abstain. She pointed out that influential people, in government for instance, should take lead in advising youngsters on how to behave, and this can be a great step in restoring parents’ boldness towards taking responsibility to up-bring their children with values.
