By
Shifa Mwesigye
WEEKLY OBSERVER
“It’s not cool buying CDs man. Ya’ll
gatta find a cool slang if I gatta buy a CD”, Robin
Agaba, a Senior Six leaver, confesses at the Buzz Teenies
Awards he was attending with his friends.
He is talking about buying condoms in case you are lost
in the slang. And like his friends that he is hanging out
with, Agaba prefers to call condoms CDs when he makes the
trip to the shop for a pack. At 19 years, Agaba acknowledges
he has had sex before and has been tempted to have unprotected
sex.
“The lady in the pharmacy looks at you like you pulled
a gun on her when you ask for them things,” Agaba
says in his type of lingua common among the youth.
“That don’t make me wanna go back the next
time,” he adds, before laughing with his friends.
Yes, he wants to use condoms all the time, but the ‘vibe’
about condoms that he hears from different people sometimes
gives him a second thought.
He has heard concerns about the safety of condoms, breakage
and ineffectiveness. His friends have told him that sometimes
condoms have holes.
They have also talked about condoms as being a barrier
to real sex enjoyment.
“The real thing is sweeter, if you know withdraw then
you are in control,” Agaba adds. Has he heard about
the statistics that HIV is in fact highest among youth now
and especially amongst the young girls he enjoys live sex
with?
“No, I have never read it anywhere” he reckons.
11.8 million youth world wide are living with HIV or AIDS,
62 percent of these are female. Despite extensive efforts
in promoting condom use, young people in Sub-Saharan Africa
still engage in risky sexual behaviour where condom use
remains relatively low, according to a study titled ‘Protecting
the Next Generation: Understanding the Sexual and Reproductive
needs of Young People’
The study done by Guttmacher Institute in collaboration
with Makerere Institute of Social Research found out that
only 36 percent of youth in Uganda consistently use condoms,
yet 48 percent have had sexual intercourse.
Ghana’s 47 percent and Burkina Faso’s 38 percent
reported using condoms.
These statistics show that the use of condoms among the
youth in Uganda is below average, and is in fact worrying.
The researchers found out that attitudes of the youth (10-24
years) of condoms tend to be negative. Besides the negative
effectives of condom use on enjoyment, the youth believe
they are still too young to catch HIV. Some say that some
condoms are of low quality, especially the free ones which
target low income earners. Others fear that strange look
on the sales person’s face when they go to the shop
to buy a condom. It spells infidelity or having sexually
transmitted infections to the sales person.
The study done by Stella Neema on behalf of Guttmacher
Institute notes that tackling misperceptions remains a challenge
for programmes and policies aimed at increasing condom use
among sexually active adolescents.
“While evidence continues to grow about how adolescents
view condoms, very little information is available in whether
adolescent’s knowledge of how to use condoms is correct
and whether they actually use them correctly and consistently,”
the report says.
Increasing condom use alone will not be fully effective
in stemming HIV and STI transmission or preventing unwanted
pregnancy if condoms are used incorrectly and inconsistently.
While some youth have seen a condom use demonstration,
learnt from friends, radio, TV and newspapers, a majority
still doesn’t know that a condom is used once.
Others, the report says, remember in the middle of a sex
act to wear a condom rather than use it at the start or
don’t wear a condom again after the first round.
There are those adolescents who still don’t know that
a condom should be put on the penis only if the penis is
fully erect or stiff.
Sex education is a new thing in Ugandan secondary schools,
yet some youth will have started engaging in sex by primary
school, while others will have dropped out of school altogether.
The report suggests that sex education be introduced as
early as possible because the number of youth starting sex
early is high. The youth who also constantly listen to radio
and watch TV have better knowledge of condoms and its use
than those who don’t, while the youth in urban areas
had better knowledge than their rural counterparts.
While 96 percent of Ugandan youth are aware of the condom,
only 36 percent consistently use it and only 43 percent
reported correct use of condoms as a means of protection
against HIV/AIDS and STIs.
The reason many youth like Agaba use condoms is to protect
against unwanted pregnancies first, then the other worries
follow.
This, according to Dr. Eliya Zulu, a researcher from Kenya,
is because the consequences of pregnancy are more realistic
than HIV.
“There is a risk of dropping out of school if the
girl is expelled, or the family might chase the girl away
from home,” Zulu says.
And while the male have better knowledge of condom use
(62 percent) than the female (42 percent) in Uganda, it
is still difficult for the girls to negotiate for the condom
yet HIV/AIDS is higher amongst this gender.
Professor Amy Tsui of the John Hopkins School of public
health argues that this is because females tend to have
older partners, commonly referred to as sugar daddies, than
their male counterparts. She adds, “The female genital
area is more vulnerable to contracting HIV because of its
large surface area and its ease to tear.”
It is important for Uganda’s youth to protect themselves
against risk for their wellbeing and health as they are
the country’s future productive and reproductive population.
“The consequences of poor health and risky behaviour
at this age stretch into the future affecting their prospects,”
Tsui said at the just concluded ‘Youth Deliver the
Future Conference’ in Abuja, Nigeria.
smwesigye@ugandaobserver.com
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