Teenage pregnancies continue to be a major challenge Rwanda is grappling with, as more girls aged below 19 and of school going age continue to be victims of unplanned pregnancies, which lead to them dropping out of school and complicate their young lives.

Every year, the number seems to increase or slightly decline, only for it to go back up again the following year, despite different efforts by government and stakeholders to drive sexual and reproductive health awareness, with the aim of minimising or preventing teenage pregnancy, which has far-reaching consequences than just dropping out of school.

Figures are already showing that 2024 will not be any different, with records captured by Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), showing that there were already 10,480 recorded teenage pregnancies in the country in the first six months of the year and the number could double by the end of the year.

The issue of teenage pregnancies was raised at the 23rd General Assembly of the National Women’s Council (NWC), which was held on September 23, where Nadine Umutoni Gatsinzi, Chief Gender Monitor at Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), challenged women to be part of efforts to combat the scourge.

What is even more appalling is that a considerable number of the victims of this form of Gender-based sexual violence, are children below the age of 14 -meaning that some of the victims are as young as 12.

"It is a challenge we have to deal with head on. We talked about teenage pregnancies and this year, from January to June, RBC recorded 10,480 pregnancies, in just six months,” Gatsinzi said during the gathering.

"Numbers show that out of those pregnancies, 55 were children aged between 14 and 12, while 2, 446 of the registered cases are aged between 14 and 17.

About 8,000 of the victims are aged 18 and 19. This is a serious concern which speaks of the level of sexual violence targeting girls and women,” she added.

The Chief Gender Monitor said there is a need for all stakeholders at all levels to play their role in reversing this trend, which shows that the number could be well above 20,000 by the end of 2024.

In 2023, Rwanda recorded 22,055 teen pregnancies, a number which has been growing since 2017, where 17, 331 cases were but they increased to 23, 622 in 2019.

The number slightly declined in 2020, dropping to 19,701, but increased again in 2021, reaching 23, 534 recorded teenage pregnancies countrywide. Gatsinzi says that while the numbers seem stagnated or fluctuating, more focus needs to be put on prevention.

Behind numbers are children’s lives

Gatsinzi says that the public and the media should go beyond focusing on the numbers and understand that behind the data and statistics are children’s lives which are at stake, given the implications of early, unplanned pregnancies.

"Behind those numbers are children whose lives have been shattered,” she told The New Times, adding that rather than looking at the numbers, which indeed make headlines, more focus needs to be put on the actions and steps to curb teenage pregnancies.

Gatsinzi says that every year, the focus seems to be put on the number, which creates an alarm in society, rather than contributing to awareness and prevention efforts, which in a way can be counterproductive.

She says that while the number makes news, even one child pregnancy is alarming enough, urging the public to focus on addressing the causes, rather than dwelling on the number, which she says annually stagnates around 20,000.

Time to go after the perpetrators

While several approaches have been put in place by government and stakeholders in civil society, little has been done to bring the perpetrators to book. Over the years, women and girls’ rights activists have called for measures that include bringing offenders to book.

It is something even Consolée Uwimana, Minister of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) raised during the general assembly, pointing out that it is time the perpetrators are brought to the fore to answer for their actions.

Minister Uwimana said that it is not understandable how some men get away with impregnating young girls, putting their future at risk and they don’t get punished for it -something she blamed on a culture of covering up such actions in society.

"I don’t understand how we can continue covering up these acts, to a point where a man can impregnate a young girl and another one, and repeats the same over and over again and we don’t take action,”

"These are people we know and they live among us but we don’t speak about them or do anything. It is sickening to know that we know these people and we continue to co-exist with them,” she said, pointing out that if you cover up sex predators, the next thing they come for is your own child or the one you take care of.

Gatsinzi, who raised the matter, adds that there is still a lot of work to do in terms of holding the perpetrators.

"I think we don’t talk about the perpetrators enough. We talk about teenage pregnancies but we don’t talk about those responsible. We don’t see the perpetrators,” she said, adding that most times the society connives to cover up perpetrators.

"The victim will not say the name, the family might know the person responsible but they won’t tell. Sometimes they tip them off to run away. These are things we know that happen within our communities,”

"Concealing perpetrators and failing to denounce them in time is something that is making this fight very difficult,” Gatsinzi says, adding that sometimes the victims or their families conceal information even when authorities intervene.

Other factors she blames are poverty, where a girl is forced to engage in sexual intercourse for money and when she gets pregnant, still poverty becomes the main reason for lack of action as the perpetrator tries to silence her and the family, which is also often poor, by promising them financial support.

"It is not until the support is withdrawn or starts disappearing that they come out to denounce the perpetrator, when it is already too late,” Gatsinzi told The New Times in an interview.

The Chief Gender Monitor says that society stereotypes have not helped much, blaming victims rather than holding the perpetrator accountable.

"It is something we seem to have normalised, as though it is not a crime. A girl will be blamed because she normally wears miniskirts, she is not well behaved, she loves boys and other claims which condemn the victim and exonerate the perpetrator,” she says.

In rural parts of the country, where teenage pregnancies are more prevalent, ignorance, especially on the side of parents or guardians, coupled with lack of responsibility, are blamed for the early pregnancies because children do not have information or knowledge.

Keeping girls in school

Gatsinzi says that one of the ways to minimise early pregnancies is to keep girls in school, because at school they don’t only learn about their sexual reproductive health rights, but they also have some form of protection.

"We need to invest more in girls’ education,” she says, adding that available data shows that at least 80 percent of teen pregnancies affect girls who are out of school or dropped out for different reasons.

"Keeping our children in schools, girls and boys, is one sure way of reducing teenage pregnancies,” she said, pointing out that there is a need to work on the other issues that force children to drop out of school and get exposed early on.

Other causes include family breakdown and conflicts, which affect both girls and boys and expose them to risky behaviours, because data shows that 60 percent of the perpetrators are males aged between 18 and 30, the majority of whom also have similar society issues.

Gatsinzi says there are a number of underlying issues which play into the challenge of teenage pregnancies, the majority of which are hinged on the way the family or society is set up, compounding the problem further -for instance poverty as earlier mentioned.

In cases where families have the means, Gatsinzi says the issue is handled well, the girl is supported and she goes back to school and the perpetrator is held accountable, but those are just a few cases.

A more conscious society

Gatsinzi says dealing with teenage pregnancies should not be seen as a responsibility of the Government and its affiliated institutions or civil society organisations in that area, but rather it should be a responsibility of everyone.

"We need to act now, we need to condemn the perpetrators, all of us, because we know them. They live among us,” she said, pointing out that naming and shaming them or reporting them to concerned institutions would help in some ways.

"We also need to start asking questions to men and our young men, why they engage in these acts of impregnating young girls and hold them accountable,” Gatsinzi says, among other solutions, also reiterating the importance of education and awareness.

Records show that in just five years, more than 100, 000 teenage girls were impregnated but only a small percentage of perpetrators have been brought to book.

For instance, in the Eastern Province, which recorded 8,801 teen pregnancies last year, one of the highest in the country per district, only 70 men were brought to justice and just over a dozen were sentenced.

Honorine Umutoniwase, now 20, says that she tried to report the person responsible for impregnating her, but he was protected by her own family, because he is ‘a relative’ and it could jeopardise family ties.

"They said it would be settled at the family level, but when I insisted on reporting him to law enforcement, it was my own family which tipped him off to run away,” says Umutoniwase, who lives in Nyagatare town.

She was witch-hunted for trying to escalate the matter, until a local NGO came to her rescue, enrolling her back in school and engaging her family on the matter.

The main reasons for victims like Umutoniwase not getting legal support is lack of financial means, with 46 percent of the victims not being able to seek help and instead accepting their predicament.

Improving access to healthcare services

Dr. Aflodis Kagaba, the Executive Director, Health Development Initiative (HDI), one of the leading civil society organisations advocating for sexual and reproductive health rights, says limited access to education remains the main cause of early pregnancies.

"The more young girls drop out of school, they&039;re not educated and don't stay in the school system, the likelihood of getting pregnant increases,” Kagaba says, pointing out that this has been more prevalent in the Eastern Province.

However, improving access to health services is one of the main solutions Dr. Kagaba says can help to reduce the number of teen pregnancies tremendously, but legal provisions that require girls to be accompanied by parents or guardians still make it hard for girls to get services such as contraceptives and abortion.

"As you might know, this is why we have been having conversations around this provision, so that it can be changed, but also here we can also talk about the attitudes of healthcare providers,”

"We need to have healthcare workers who provide stigma free services. We need to train them on providing friendly services for young girls without them feeling that they are being stigmatised, and ensuring that we are doing the necessary outreach to the girls and the boys, so that they are well informed,” Dr. Kagaba says.

Dr. Kagaba says there is a need to establish centres or spaces where the young people can access the services without being impeded by cultural norms and religious beliefs.

He argues that the Rwandan society is still very much hinged on cultural and traditional beliefs, which give men or boys the power to make decisions on sex and relationships and this must change.

"We need to create an environment where both girls and boys or men and women can be able to make decisions about their sexuality,” he said, adding that more work is needed to break those barriers.

The HDI founder says that while it is worth celebrating that Rwanda adopted a Comprehensive Sexual Education booklet, it is not yet clear if it is being used the way it should.

"We don’t know if CSE is being delivered adequately, because sometimes even the teachers who are supposed to be delivering it are not comfortable. We have a big percentage of schools which are still owned by the church where you can't even talk about safe sex or abstinence,” Kagaba says.

With social media influence, Dr. Kagaba argues that there's a lot of inaccurate information and other forms of influence, which may push young girls and boys to become sexually active.

Dr. Kagaba is however optimistic that change is on the horizon, because the conversation on what needs to be done is happening, and most importantly, it is informed by data.

"There is a new law which is going to be discussed in Parliament, the law regulating healthcare services. There are some provisions that have been included, including one that would allow minors, at least from the age of 15, to be able to access services without necessarily being required to be accompanied by parents,”

"It has already been adopted by the cabinet and we just hope that Parliament will do the needful,” he says, adding that if it is passed, they can build on it to create more awareness and educate young people to know their sexual and reproductive health rights.

Dr. Kagaba disagrees with those who argue that opening access to healthcare services such as contraceptives and abortion services to young people would be exposing them further.

"No one has the power to control information. When you don't give them accurate information, they will consume wrong information and that's what is happening,” he says, adding that the best way is to give them the information and tools to make informed decisions.

Kagaba says that evidence suggests that youth that have accurate information are more positioned to make decisions such as using protection and dangers of unsafe sex, as opposed to those who are less informed or illiterate.

From words to action

Dr. Kagaba’s views are shared by Chantal Umuhoza, feminist and socioeconomic justice advocate, who also doubts whether the comprehensive sexual education program which was adopted in 2017 is being implemented well.

Umuhoza, who has been actively involved in pushing for improved access to healthcare services as well as SRHR awareness for young people, says that an in-school and out of school project they implemented found that people had little or no information about sexual reproductive health.

"When it comes to teenage pregnancies, we found that some of the girls who became pregnant were raped by people that are way older than them and that's something else that needs to be fixed and looked at from the rape angle,”

"But we also have young girls who engage in sexual activities with their peers. That is, especially for the age group of 15 and above. The majority don't have information, but they also don't have access to services,” Umuhoza says, adding that it is time to move from words to action to address the pressing issue of teenage pregnancy.

Like Dr. Kagaba, Umuhoza argues that the fact that anyone below 18 needs to be accompanied in order to access services is simply not working because no young person wants to show their parents or guardians that they are sexually active.

"No child would want to go with their parents to ask for contraception because then they are indirectly confirming that they're having sex and this is not a discussion that parents will have with their children, whether it is in the city or village,” Umuhoza says.

Subsidising emergency contraceptives

The other option, Umuhoza argues, would be subsidising emergency contraceptives to make them more affordable, with the cost currently ranging between Rwf10,000 and Rwf15,000, which many young people cannot afford.

"Young people do not plan to have sex and all that. It's something that happens. The best contraception that they can have, that can actually work for them, usually is the emergency contraception, which is not really accessible,” Umuhoza says, like Kagaba, pointing out that young people are sexually active, whether you like it or not.