Welcome to our weekly update! I hope you are finding these interesting and informative. Thank you so much for partnering with KTD196, you are having an amazing impact by saving lives, literally. Today I want to talk about teenage pregnancy! Teenage pregnancy is the new PANDEMIC in South Africa. The alternative for 23% of all girl children! Yes I know I have done that before however there are a lot of new supporters that may not know what we do and how that need to understand why this program is so important! Before KTD196 was born, Elizabeth and I performed a focus group with 13girls and asked them “Why there are so many teenagers getting pregnant?” Their response floored me, apart from rape, transactional sex (sex for money or gifts or grades at school) the biggest response was “We are bored, there is nothing to do, and sex is free!” So as part of the program, we keep the children busy daily but also instil morals and values through a code of conduct. Here are some facts that you might like to consider! FACT #1 The proportion of women, by the time they are 19yrs of age, who have ever been pregnant is 25%. The teenage (10-19yrs) pregnancy rate is 13.9% of all registered births in 2016, this does not include home births, stillbirths, abortions, unregistered births, or miscarriages.
The number of deliveries by under 18yr olds in 2016 at medical facilities is only 7.4% and so a large proportion has home births which increases maternal mortality and neonatal mortality. KTD196 pregnancy rate is 0.07% over 15yrs (12 girls over 19 years) have become pregnant while in our program. We have saved the government over R87million in Child Support Grants they do not have to pay out. This does not include costs associated with 2,018 teenagers attending:
* Antenatal Clinic visits
* Antenatal blood screening
* Antenatal medications
* Nevirapine
* Postnatal Clinic visits
* Tertiary hospital referrals for delivery
* Caesarean Sections – delivery and inpatient costs associated with a child giving birth
* Neonatal ICU for the baby
* Follow up Well Baby clinics, Immunizations, sickly children, and ongoing hospital
admissions for mother and child.
* Management and cost involved for spontaneous abortions
* Management and cost involved for medical abortions
FACT #2 There are 400,000 new HIV infections (23%) per annum amongst adolescent girls and young women aged between 16-24yrs. Because our children are abstaining from sexual activity the possibility of becoming HIV infected is negligible. However, 23% of 716 girls in our program = 165 (potentially infected by HIV) x R1,700 (Cost of Antiretroviral alone per year) which is a saving of R280,500 per year. The savings to the government in 10years are over R2million.
This does not include:
* Clinic visits
* Treatment of opportunistic infections
* CD4 and Viral load pathology tests
* Tuberculosis co-infection treatment and management
* Other Sexually Transmitted Infections treatment and management
* Maternal Mortality for pregnant teenagers is 97.7 of 100,000
* Neonatal Mortality for teenage mothers is 34.4 of 100,000
* Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis treatment and management (R200,000 per year)
Keep The Dream196 has trained over 2,500 children in HIV prevention and gender-based violence prevention. We also have trained over 250 HIV Peer Educators to share the truth about HIV and to dispel myths that still pervade this society.
I am sure you agree that this is a tragic needless loss of life to families, communities, and the nation, however, this is exactly what you are preventing through your support! This and so much more I will share in later reports.
I hope you are encouraged by the work we do and understand the impact we are having. 716 babies have not been born! They have not been aborted because they have not been conceived. The children are being children and enjoying being children and not mothers.
Thank you once again for your support, it really is awesome however we URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP. It is life and death to these girls. Help us to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to assist the girl children to realize their potential through KTD196.
Blessings
Louise
PS Please check our YouTube channel for some fun videos of some of the school holiday activities!
Comments are closed.