By Kuda Pembere
Financial education is a vital element often overlooked in sexual reproductive health rights issues for total emancipation of adolescent girls and young women (AGYWs) in Zimbabwe, an Aflatoun International official said on Monday.
Aflatoun is a non-profit organization offering social, financial and entrepreneurial education to young people globally.
Supported by Education Above All Foundation and six other organizations in Zimbabwe, the organization has been in SRHR projects alongside other projects aimed at empowering youngsters with life skills and financial education.
Aflatoun International Chief executive officer Roeland Monasch told this publication on the sidelines of a Closing Event, said SRHR information is as important but should come with financial literacy.
SRHR information for adolescents and young people is extremely important. Educating them about these things, also about HIV AIDS. But did you know, since there have been a very large HIV AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe and in the other countries in the Eastern and Southern African region, all the organizations are teaching children about SRHR. So what not to do, and etc. And it’s the issues about condom use, about sugar daddies, and all those types of things,” he said.
“We have been preaching this for the last 15 years or longer.”
He said it was important to empower adolescent young girls with financial education to prevent them from being the prey of sugar daddies.
“The thing is, if you’re an adolescent girl, you want to have a mobile phone, you want to have top up, money. You want to have your hair done. Money. You might want to have that dress you have been seeing. Money. Where do I get money?
“If you don’t have any skills, you might be very knowledgeable at SRHR, but one of the very few options you have is a sugar daddy. Yeah? That’s the reality on the ground.
“So if you want your SRHR program to be successful, you cannot only talk about what to do, what not to do. You also need to teach them financial skills to make another way of living,” Mr Monasch said.
While adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected, having the highest number of new infections of HIV amongst them, Mr Monasch noted that financial skills have been seen to reduce infection rates.
“So when you say the link between SRHR and financial education, if you want to have your SRHR program to be successful, to act on these behaviors, you need to give them also the skills to make money in a different way.
“And what we have more and more academic research is showing that if you combine social and financial skills with SRHR, there is a reduction actually in infection rates. So it is a very powerful combination,” he said.
Kelsey Sakarombe, a Lower sixth student at Mutare Girls High School said the topic entiled My Body, My Choices on SRHR under the Aflateen program learned to embrace their bodily changes.
“Through these sessions, I came to realise that being unique is not shown by the way you look but also by the way you think.
“I have realized that I should not rely on my parents. I can do other things for myself. I can buy whatever I want from savings of the pocket money I get from my parents. I can start my small projects of selling sweets during my spare time,” she said.
She urged young girls not to sit on their laurels relying on boyfriends. Kelsy added that self-reliance can avoid a lot of things such as intimate partner violence.
“My encouragement is that ladies, girls, lets work fofr ourselves. Let’s not rely on our boyfriends because they are also working for this money. Imagine you are dating your boyfriend and he is spending a lot of money on you and you disappoint him, this will result in violence. Learn to do your own things,” she said.
Over the three years course of the Aflateen project, Aflatoun has been able to impact the lives of 13,320 adolescents in Zimbabwe.
“To socially and economically empower young girls and boys (ages of 14 to 19) in 3 countries, Mozambique, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe by providing them with the social and financial skills necessary to make informed choices about their health, financial situation and education,” said the organization.
