The number of adolescents getting pregnant in schools in South Africa is on a significant rise.
The recent statistics released by Amnesty International, South Africa shows girls as young as young as ten years old are giving birth.
According to South African law, children below the age of 12 do not have the capacity to consent to sexual activity. Sexual intercourse below the age of 12 is considered rape.
Out of 1764 babies born in South Africa in the month of January 2022, 65 were born to teenage girls.
According to Amnesty International, most teen mothers come from financially unstable families.
Other competing reasons for the rise of teen births is the lacking of good sexual education in schools.
One of them said, “for me, my baby daddy is not around and my mother is a cleaner so it is really hard. Sometimes knowing that my mother is not getting a salary, my baby not having pampers, makes me ask ‘where would we actually go?'”
According to the international human rights body, between April 2017 and September 2021, the number of girls between 10-14 years that became mothers increased by 48.7%.
Most of these teenage mothers live in South African townships.
Organisations like Ray of Hope have stepped in to help the girls get used to their new normal. They offer them social support and mental health talks, and how to parent a child.
