By Louise | Managing Director
Thank you for joining us, KTD196, as we continue to serve our communities. Welcome to our new supporters and Thank you to those who have been on this journey with us throughout the 13yrs we have been officially in operation, 8 of those years on GlobalGiving.
Just recently, we have had a spate of babies being born to our older beneficiaries but I am proud to say on behalf of the mum and dads that they are all young adults who are married and are enjoying parenthood as a pleasure and not a burden. KTD196 has not had a pregnancy of one of our children for 2years.
Why is that important? Well, Limpopo province in South Africa has for decades had a relatively high teenage pregnancy rate. It is an unspoken reality that early pregnancy especially in a region plagued by malnutrition, poverty, and food insecurity is likened to a death sentence to the hope of a better future for the child and his/her parents. Unfortunately, when children have children there is a high mortality rate amongst the mother and the child because children's bodies are just not prepared or ready to give birth as safely as an adults.
According to a 2016 study by the South Africa Demographic and Health Survey, children born to very young mothers are at increased risk of sickness and death. This is one of the social issues that KTD196 is addressing through our various programs.
The province has a reported teenage pregnancy rate of approximately 13% and through our efforts we have contributed to reducing the rate to 0.007% over a span of 17 years for girls in our program. With a teenage pregnancy rate of 13% we should be seeing approximatly 170 teenage pregnancies a year and multiplied that to 17 years which gives us a total of 2,890 teenage pregnancies we have helped in preventing.
By 2019 alone we have saved the government R304million in not paying for child support grants.
A study conducted by Mothiba & Maputle on factors contributing teenage pregnancy in the Capricorn district of Limpopo recommends the establishment of male involvement programs for prevention efforts that specifically target boys and young men. Programs they cited were ones focusing on community service or other out-of-school activities with a cultural component. In line with this, KTD196 has a number of programs and socio-civic activities for the youth. Our scouting and community garden programs have successfully integrated both young men and women, and has practically prevented the latter from becoming pregnant.
Because of your support we are able to provide programs which assist the boys and girls to socialise together, to learn and have respect for one and other and to develop a sense of teamwork which is not usual amongst african cultures between the different sexes. We are changing the face of relationships and breaking the scourge of teenage pregnancy.
Thank you for partnering with us.
Stay safe and well
Louise
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