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In the face of high HIV prevalence and teen pregnancy rates, Mpilonhle is bringing sexuality education to students in rural areas of KwaZulu Natal.

Giacomo Pirozzi/Panos Pictures 2006

In rural South Africa, an organization is confronting life-threatening social taboos and working to replace them with a greater awareness of reproductive health and human rights. That organization is Mpilonhle, promoting health and social development among adolescents in the rural district of uMkhanyakude, in the coastal province of KwaZulu Natal.

Mpilonhle — which means “good life” in the isiZulu language — was founded to address an acute need in an area with a high incidence of HIV infection: “It is 20 years into the HIV and AIDS pandemic and still young people living around here never talk about this issue that will probably affect them during their lives,” explains director Michael Bennish, who started the organisation in 2006.

“Our background as Africans dictates that you don’t talk about sex at home,” according to Thuli Biyela, Mphilonhle’s primary healthcare coordinator.

Gugu Zulu, the health education coordinator, adds that many in the community feel that educating young people about sex means educators are “promoting” sex, arguing that “it is the same as saying ‘here’s liquor, go and drink it responsibly’.”

“They are defensive,” continues Zulu. “They say the foreigners are bringing these problems here, even though these problems have always been here. The district has a particularly high rate of teenage pregnancy. There are even cases where students have as many as three children. There is pressure on girls to keep babies with the argument that the state’s child support grants remove any reason for girls not to have children,” says Zulu.

As a result, Zulu says, unsafe abortion is also a danger to girls’ lives. “Abortion is a subject that is never talked about in our communities. It is stigmatised as immoral on the basis of religious belief and culture. I respect our culture but one can’t turn a blind eye. Girls end up using unsafe methods to end unwanted pregnancy – even a clothes hanger.”

Mpilonhle creates “a little sanctuary” for students where they can talk about things that they can’t discuss anywhere else, says Bennish.

In order to reach youth in their far-flung villages, Mpilonhle created mobile units that could travel to schools around the region. Teams consisting of health educators, nurses, social workers and IT specialists, spend several days at a time at a school. They provide sexual and reproductive health education for teenagers, including prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the use of contraceptives and the right to legal abortion. Each unit has four private consulting rooms, and they can perform pregnancy tests and treat STIs. The IT specialists provide computer training for students to build additional life skills.

With assistance from Ipas South Arica (through a grant from the Ford Foundation), Mpilonhle staff are also educating students about their human rights under the Maputo Plan of Action, a regional agreement to facilitate universal access to reproductive health care by 2015. The agreement includes strategies that specifically address the needs of youth and the challenge of unsafe abortion.

Mpilonhle’s education programs currently reach 10,000 students and another 10,000 people in the wider community. Staff see their work as a matter of life and death.

“Students need the information to make informed choices. Some of these girls don’t even know how many months pregnant they are. Teachers need to understand that they can’t let defensiveness stand in the way here. Lives are lost because of unsafe abortions,” argues Zulu.

To reinforce their work, the organisation furnishes a quarterly report to each school to give a sense of the problems their students face, and the impact of silence. “This is to confront teachers with the reality,” explains Zulu. “We put the scenarios on the table to involve them in the solution. We always have examples of things happening. I say to them: It affects you and me – let’s not pretend that it is not happening.”

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