Myths and Facts about Sex Education and Condoms

By Nyasigo Kornel

Wonders of ICT in joining 10 African countries in voicing out

Although many myths abound about sex education, a large majority of parents and youth who managed to dialogue through the use of ICT at Tanzania Global Development and Learning Centre (TGDLC) agree that young people need information about both condoms and other forms of contraception and also abstinence.

Tanzania: Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs work.
Researchers done in Tanzania by Youth power Group who manage to present their opinion via ICT to other ten countries have identified no abstinence-only-until-marriage program that works to reduce sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or the incidence of pregnancy. Evaluations from 13 regions indicate that abstinence-only programs have no long term impact on teens' sexual behavior.

One program (virginity pledging) delayed the initiation of sex among pledge-takers by up to 18 months, so long as not more than 30 percent of students took the pledge.

However, once pledge-takers initiated sex and more than 88 percent of pledge-takers broke their pledge and had sex before marriage, pledgetakers had more partners in a shorter period of time and were less likely to use contraception or condoms than their non-pledging peers.
Despite later initiation of sex, pledge-takers' rates of STIs varied little from rates among their non-pledging peers.

Zambia: Sex education encourages youth to become sexually active sooner than they otherwise would have.

The counterpart in Zambia have sex education at hand where their research says that Sex education does not encourage youth to become sexually active contrary to what African society used to claim.

Analyses by leading national and international organizations—including the Zambia Medical Association, Zambia Institute of Medicine, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and World Health Organization, among others—found that comprehensive sex education programs do not encourage students to begin having sex. In fact, research shows that effective sex education programs help youth to delay the initiation of sex.

Tanzania: Teaching students about contraception and condoms encourages sexual activity and increases the chance that teens will experience pregnancy.

Teaching students about contraception and condoms does not encourage sexual activity. Instead, it increases young people's use of contraception and condoms when they do begin having sex.

Research shows that youth who use condoms at first sex are more than twice as likely to use condoms at most recent sex than are youth who did not use condoms at first sex. Several effective programs have both increased youth's use of contraception and condoms and also reduced youth's frequency of sex, number of sex partners, and/or incidence of unprotected sex.

Ethiopia: Contraceptives fail so frequently that we should only teach teens to abstain.

Research done by UNAID, WHO and Youth Alliance of Ethiopia managed to reveal that modern contraceptives are highly effective in preventing pregnancy. In a year of using no method, 85 in 100 women will experience pregnancy.

By contrast, in one year of consistent and correct use of oral contraceptives (combined or mini-pills), only three in 1,000 women will experience pregnancy; Injected contraception (such as Depo-Provera or Lunelle), only one in 1,000 women will experience pregnancy; Implants (such as Implanon), only five in 10,000 women will experience pregnancy.

The pregnancy rates for non-prescription contraceptive methods (like condoms and spermicides) are also much lower than the rates for using no contraceptive method: two in 100 women using male condoms or five in 100 women using female condoms consistently and correctly for a year will experience pregnancy compared to 85 in 100 using no method.

Even inconsistent and/or occasionally incorrect use of contraceptive methods protects women far better than using no method. Eight of 100 women using oral contraceptives incorrectly or inconsistently will experience pregnancy in a year; three in 100 women using injected contraception inconsistently will experience pregnancy in a year; and 15 of 100 women using the male condom or 21 of 100 using the female condom inconsistently or incorrectly will experience pregnancy in a year compared to 85 in 100 using no method.

Zimbabwe: Educators do not tell young people that hormonal contraceptives won't protect them against HIV and other STIs.

ICT is wonderful, it made Zimbabwe centre for youth share their knowledge with other 10 countries saying that educators and health care providers carefully and consistently advise youth that hormonal contraceptives do not protect against STIs, including HIV.

For protection against STIs, sexually active people must use condoms. In addition, sexual abstinence is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and the sexual transmission of HIV and other STIs so long as this method is used consistently and correctly.

Uganda: We shouldn't teach youth about condoms because they have high failure rates.
Remarked one of the Ugandan activity and medical doctor, Julian Rweganja that laboratory studies show that latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of HIV and other STI pathogens.

Studies have shown that polyurethane condoms, including the female condom, also provide effective barriers against sperm, bacteria, and viruses, such as HIV.

In addition, studies clearly show that condom breakage rates in this country are less than two percent; experts say that most of the breakage and slippage is likely due to incorrect use rather than to condoms' quality.

Finally, only two of every 100 couples who use condoms correctly and consistently will experience pregnancy within one year—two pregnancies arising from an estimated 8,300 acts of sexual intercourse among the 100 couples, for a 0.02 percent per-condom failure rate.

Ghana: We shouldn't teach youth about condoms because they are not effective in preventing HIV.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a number of carefully conducted studies, employing rigorous methods and measures, have demonstrated that consistent condom use is highly effective in preventing HIV transmission. Moreover, condoms are the only technology currently available that can effectively protect people against the sexual transmission of HIV.

We shouldn't encourage youth to use condoms because they do not protect against human papillomavirus (HPV).

Condoms do provide some protection against HPV and HPV-associated diseases such as cervical dysplasia and cervical cancer.

In fact, recent studies showed that newly sexually active women who used condoms for all sex acts were significantly less likely to acquire HPV than their peers who did not use condoms consistently; and women already diagnosed with a pre-cancerous cervical condition and who used condoms consistently were much more likely to have a healthy cervix at follow-up and/or to have cleared HPV from their system than were inconsistent condom users. Among men, consistent condom users were less likely than inconsistent users to have penile HPV or HPV lesions.

Youth demand greater role in AIDS war

By Nyasigo Kornel

Eleven-year-old Jasmin Abdalah of Tanzania has been an HIV/AIDS activist and educator since the age of four. She would carry placards highlighting the causes and prevention of the disease, along with her journalist mother, at different HIV/AIDS awareness events.

Jasmin graduated to a chant leader at the age of six before rising to her present position of a public speaker at bus stops, hospitals and open markets. Today she is also a member of Stop Child Poverty (SCP) that is linked with Tanzania Non-governmental Organization (TANGO), a Tanzanian network of non-governmental organizations working for the uplift of children in her country.

Sharing her views and experience shortly after Video Conference held at Tanzania Global Development and Learning Centre (TGDLC) that is done every Friday and combine youth across Africa in dialogue, she says, “As a member of SCP, I use music, dance, poetry, chat shows and other forms of art to create awareness on HIV/AIDS,” the young advocate told Grassroots Features with a confidence that belies her tender years.

Annasteria Whileric, 24, of Tanzania is a broadcaster to PRT radio under RTD that broadcasts midday program about the rights of children all over Tanzania, she was also in the dialogue answering to why this is not child labor.

“I want to ensure that our voices are heard and included in government policy,” she asserts.
Twenty-four-year-old Frida Rwegashora of Bukoba felt her world crumbling when diagnosed HIV-positive six years ago.

As she lay recuperating at a recovery centre AMREF, Frida was devastated imagining the future living with AIDS.

'I was ready to give up my life,' she confesses.

'But then I got thinking of what my future held living with this disease, and eventually this motivated me to get informed about HIV/AIDS.'

Her resolve not to let the illness defeat her led her into AIDS response among youth and hence used as role model in AMREF.

Frida worked with the AMREF, an International NGO, from 2001 to 2007.
Jasmin, Grace Masanja and Frida were among a large group of young leaders from across Tanzania that converged in TGDLC during the regional youth AIDS Conference held from early in April.

Their aim was to get a firm commitment from world leaders to involve youth as equal and effective partners in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

As members of the TGDLC youth and HIV/AIDS program, a wide-ranging coalition of many organizations from 10 countries supporting meaningful participation, integration and inclusion of young people at the conference, these young advocates sought the support of governments and decision-makers for youth initiatives.

Through the TGDLC youth and HIV/AIDS program, these young people seek to be active participants and build meaningful youth-adult partnerships with scientists, programmers and decision-makers to facilitate the exchange of ideas and bring about policy change.

The young ambassadors were brought here to help figure out what can be done collectively to reach a 2015 target whereby 60 percent of youth in Sub Saharan Africa would know of HIV transmission.

Current UNAIDS statistics report that only one in three young men, and one in five young women, have knowledge of how to prevent HIV transmission.

Youth specific programs, youth-led workshops, youth organizations and youth delegates took the TGDLC Conference by storm as they advocated issues around comprehensive information and access to care and prevention services.

The three key messages of the youth force were: Involve us in decision-making that affects our lives and provide us with fully funded programs to protect ourselves; as HIV is mainly spread through sex, we need access to condoms and comprehensive sex education to protect ourselves; and we need youth-friendly health services including prevention, treatment, voluntary counseling, testing and access to harm reduction programs.

These messages were brought up in every session moderated by the youth leaders. The question they asked of each adult was - what are you going to do about it?
Natasha Diala of Zimbabwe narrated how she accidentally got infected with HIV after donating blood at her school.

Despite the conference's attention to promoting access to testing, Natasha challenged people to think about how 'it's just not right for people to be able to test for HIV if they don't have access to treatment.'

From the human rights perspective of living with HIV/AIDS to the elimination of stigma and discrimination and access to funding, the youth made it clear that it was time to deliver on providing solutions to wide-ranging challenges.

Marco Sayari, a Zambian living with HIV, highlighted the vital importance of funding in order to give HIV positive youth access to treatment, peer education and support networks.

Marco Sayari, observed that young people under 25 make up half of all new HIV infections, yet they are often excluded or ignored as key players in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

For youth leaders like Grace Masanja, a key solution is increased awareness through peer education programmes.

Acknowledging that the practice of unprotected sex is very common in her country due to poverty and illiteracy, she says: 'We should acknowledge that we are poor, and take charge of our sexuality'.

Tanzania Development Learning Centre (TGDLC) is a member of the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) with over 120 networked development communication hubs globally. Its core function is to enable decision makers and mid-level professionals and practitioners to access and share the wealth of knowledge and experiences available in the world through the global communication system including video conferencing, Internet, Video, CD-ROM and Print.

TGDLC is a public interest, non-profit organization, whose operations will in future be met from the income it generates. As such, the Centre will be driven by both social benefit analysis and cost-benefit analysis.