Adolescence
The transition from a child to an adult is a critical stage in the development of children. Often characterized by physical, emotional and social changes, adolescence is also a period within which impressionable children start becoming aware of their bodies and begin to explore. By Swazi custom adolescence is considered a marriageable age. However, in households without proper parental or adult supervision, teenage girls are vulnerable to sexual and emotional exploitation by members of the family and the community, resulting sometimes in unwanted pregnancies, teenage motherhood and abandoned babies. Poverty, combined with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS have left in its wake large numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, who due to a virtual collapse of the extended family system, are left to fend for themselves. Children drop out of school after the death of parents, school fees are sacrificed to pay medical costs of ill relatives, and girls are sometimes withdrawn from school to care for ill parents. Girls who get pregnant while in school are automatically expelled. Child-headed households constitute about 10 percent of the population. Children in these households have limited access to adequate and nutritious food and basic health services. In desperation, some are forced to turn to dangerous and self destructive behaviour in order to make ends meet. Adolescent girls get abused sexually and thus get exposed to HIV and AIDS. Government social welfare functions and structures formulated to deal with the issue of orphans and vulnerable children are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. On a brighter note, persistent efforts of Government, the National Emergency Response Council for HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) and development partners targeting the youth with consistent and clear messages, encouraging abstinence and faithfulness, seem to be having a positive impact on adolescents. The 2006 HIV sentinel surveillance survey among pregnant women recorded a significant decline in infection rates among teenage girls 15 – 19 years, from 29.3 percent in 2002 to 26 percent in 2006.
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