IT happened so fast there was no time to plan,” says Rutendo Chimutondo, force-feeding her 10-month baby a pre-cooked soup bought from a nearby supermarket.
Rutendo, 17 and turning 18 next month, sits beside her vegetable stall selling various fresh farm produce – from carrots, cabbages to potatoes.
“I didn’t know much about contraceptives,” she says, conceding it never crossed her mind she could get pregnant before adding: “It was my first time.”
She explains she never thought of ever looking for condoms “as the women at the clinic would have told my mom and there would have been hell to pay”.
The Bindura-born teenage says the “mistake” was due to staying at home all day as schools had been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. And her boyfriend visited frequently and convinced her to indulge.
The coronavirus altered life as most people knew it prior to 2020, and the contagion triggered much of the world to shelter indoors – with schools shuttered and businesses working at reduced hours if at all and social isolation affected most – like Rutendo, a then just-turned 16 in third form at a secondary boarding school outside the capital Harare.
While for others the Covid-19 lockdown responses – as government worked to contain and minimise the infections – was a welcome time to bond as family, Rutendo will forever rue the day the virus entered her space.
She dropped out of school after falling pregnant in late 2020. Her parents, strict Seventh Day Adventists to boot, promptly disowned her for bringing shame to the family and shipped her out onto the streets.
Her story is not isolated as similar reports are coming as the corona days slowly pass on by.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) groups say they have witnessed a spike in adolescent and teen pregnancies and an increase in cases of girls dropping out of school due to the Covid-19 environment.
SRHR Africa Trust, a non-governmental organization in the health sector, says more than 5 000 schoolgirl pregnancies were reported during the last 18 months alone. And these dropped out of school.
“We need to improve access to SRHR services for our schoolgirls if we are to prepare a future for them and they remain in school,” an officer at the group says.
Roots, another organization that works in the health and human rights field that calls and envisions economically empowered young women with greater control over their sexual and reproductive health, says most cases are swept under the carpet and the figures could be higher.
While the ministry of primary and secondary education agrees the last 20 months has seen the country on a roller-coaster ride they have issues with the numbers.
Those figures, however, fueling that narrative, are not exactly entirely true, a ministry official was at pains to say.
“Of course, we have always had instances of schoolgirls getting pregnant and again, true during this Covid-19 lockdown we have had more cases . . . but to say this has reached epidemic proportions is a bit of an exaggeration,” says Taungana Ndoro, director of communications and advocacy at the ministry.
The ministry has 9 778 schools – both primary and secondary – in 72 districts across the country “and what we know and is on record, is that around 300 schoolgirls who got pregnant during this time have returned to class after giving birth” he told this publication in his office.
Ndoro says the ministry had amended the old policy that barred schoolgirls who would have gotten pregnant and barred them from proceeding with formal schooling.
“We honestly are not aware of any research that was carried on in our schools nationwide without our being advised,” Ndoro says.
He further explains ministry has been on the ground carrying out its own outreach exercise and engaging stakeholders across districts: parents, chiefs, local authorities, central registry, ministry of health, ministry of youth and other interested parties in civil society.
“We have a strategy based not only on the Covid-19 response but on other emergencies and disasters now and in the future,” he adds.
He also says ministry was also working on enhancing the non-formal education system “at what we call ‘hubs’ focusing on vocational and even tertiary subjects” for those who find themselves in the same circumstances like Rutendo.
“We would want to give every child a chance and be inclusive and leave no one behind in these challenging times,” he adds.
As Rutendo watches another corona sunrise moving slowly across the sky, she can only pray these concerted efforts offer her a second chance.
By Patrick Musira
