MOROGORO: In African society, there are a set of values that guide the behavior of every member. Specific mention could be made of values such as hospitality, chastity before marriage, truth, respect for old age, covenant keeping, hard work and good character.
Here in Tanzania, home of more than 120 different tribes, things are not different, where in various places around the country, communities hold cultural or religious ceremonies significant to their tribes.
Traditional cultural practices reflect values and beliefs held by members of a community for periods often spanning generations.
Every social grouping in the world has specific traditional cultural practices and beliefs, some of which are beneficial to all members, while others are harmful to a specific group, such as women and youths.
A number of reasons are given for the persistence of traditional practices detrimental to the health and status of women, including the fact that, in the past, neither the governments concerned nor the international community challenged the sinister implications of such practices, which violate the rights to health, life, dignity and personal integrity.
“Just like any other part of the country, here in the village we have several cultural practices, but some of them have a negative impact on the youth, and they are being practiced in most communities around the country,” says Mwajuma Kasimu, a nurse and health service provider at Fulwe Dispensary in Fulwe Village, Mikese, Morogoro Region.
She says these traditional initiation rites are some of the main socio-cultural activities for girls’ completion of ordinary secondary education in Morogoro municipality since there is a domination of several ethnic groups.
Ms Kasimu says the aim of such traditional initiation rite is to introduce youths to adulthood and social responsibilities.
“In addition to that, ceremonies encourage sex and childbearing as important responsibilities for women in society. The tradition involves playing traditional night dances with music known as “Kigodoro” or “Vigodoro” and sometimes traditional dances which occur during evening known as “Kigoma” or “Vigoma” she says.
She says these dances are done with half-body clothes or a naked body to girls who are considered to be mature, age 11- 15 years of age, saying these traditional ceremony influence girls to drop out from school and thus lead to failure in completing ordinary secondary education.
To effectively deal with this kind of situation, Ms Kasimu says that she received vital training from Youth for Health, an initiative co-funded by the European Union (EU) that aims to expand access to life-changing adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights (ASRHR).
In Tanzania, the Y4H Consortium comprises Marie Stopes Tanzania (MST), Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) Tanzania and Sikika, with activities focused in the Morogoro region.
Ms Kasimu says that in these rites of passage ceremonies, girls learn how to perform sexual activities successfully despite their young age, which ultimately contribute to sexual transmitted diseases, early marriage, pregnancies and low academic performance.
She says that after several of them received training from Y4H, they formulated strategies to reach the youth in the area, including introducing youth friendly SRH services at the dispensary and educate them on the dangers of ‘Vigodoro’, which encourages early sexual relationships.
Ms Kasimu says that the successful outreach to the youth has witnessed a great drop in early pregnancies and STIs in the area, because before the training they used to receive a big number of pregnant girls as young as 16 to 17 years of age.
She says that with ‘Vigodoro’, most of the girls believe that the rite of passage tradition gives them authenticity to engage themselves in sexual affairs, which brings about cases of early pregnancies and STIs.
“Because what we do is an outreach, we also educate parents on the importance of allowing their children to visit the dispensary for friendly SRH services, that is why we are requesting village government officials to allow us so that when the community conducts ‘Vigodoro’, we can be present and educate the youths on SRH,” she says.
Mohammed Juma Komola, a Community Health Worker in the village who also received training from Y4H, says that the training has helped to reduce cases of STIs in the village which was becoming a grave concern.
He says that with the fact that a major road linking the country with several other African countries passes in the area, it makes the place a hive of activity, which makes the spread of STIs and cases of early pregnancies to increase.
Mr Komola said that outdated traditions which hinder progress in delivering SRH education to the youths is not limited to Vigodoro alone, but also on parents who discourage their children from visiting the health centre on cultural beliefs.
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Catherine Madaha, the Morogoro Region Reproductive Health Coordinator, says that with Morogoro region having 9 councils, they decided to direct the Y4H project in four councils, namely Gairo, Morogoro DC, Ulanga and Malinyi.
She says that they directed them in the four councils because they faced a shortage of health workers, but apart from that they faced a challenge of increasing cases of early pregnancies.
“If you take the example of Malinyi and Ulanga, there were very many cases of early pregnancies, which in turn brought another challenge of increasing the rate of mother and child mortality rate,” she says.
Ms Madaha said that in most African settings, the youths face various challenges when they grow up, which includes lack of information about the dangers of having unprotected sex and early pregnancies, that is why the training offered by Y4H came in handy.
Ms Anna Fabian Mtewe, a Community Health Worker and Data Collector from Nguyami village and Gairo in Morogoro region, says that for a long time they have been facing challenges of dealing with outdated traditions, including the issue of ‘Vigodoro, where she says in that part of the country, apart from initiating a young girl into adulthood, they are also used during Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) ceremonies.
She says that after seeing the importance of educating the youths during the ‘Vigodoro’, there was a time when she attended the ceremony and was allowed to offer SRH education during a break.
“That day after I learned that there was going to be one of these ceremonies, I arrived in the area when the ceremony was still going on, looked for the owner of the house and requested to be allowed to offer sexual education for youths, and I was allowed to do so,” she says.
She says that she told the gathering of the dangers of conducting the ceremony at night, which is a dangerous recipe for unprotected sex and the spread of STIs, highlighting the importance of using protection to avoid infections and unexpected pregnancies.
The Youth for Health (Y4H) project is working in Tanzania to support the delivery of teen-friendly services in the area of sexual and reproductive health.
The project, co-funded by the European Union, seeks to increase awareness of sexual and reproductive health issues, ensure that support services are available and train staff to provide support in public sector facilities.
In its first year, Y4H Tanzania supported context-specific gender and social norm change interventions, by training 42 community health workers in family planning, awareness raising and mobilization, holding 47 dialogue sessions with local communities.
The program also supported 21 public sector health facilities to provide more adolescent-friendly, inclusive, client-centred, quality care.
The services provided in these facilities helped to avert an estimated 17,100 unintended adolescent pregnancies, including 1,500 amongst adolescents, reached the most marginalized – 28 percent of client visits were by adolescents and 11 percent of clients were living in severe multi-dimensional poverty.
It also contributed to a more enabling environment for the respect, protection and fulfilment of ASRHR, by training and supporting 30 adolescent champions to develop and deliver advocacy asks to decision makers at national and sub-national levels and carrying out a budget analysis and presenting the findings to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Health and HIV/AIDS, which agreed to incorporate the findings into their report.
