Making A Difference About Teenage Pregnancy

Making a difference Network started in September 2013 with a career guidance and pre tertiary education training, during which the thought to take a next step in Teenage pregnancy prevention conceived 9 years ago was conceived also. So Adeyinka Adefemi (Please don’t call me founder) set out to find a way to push teenage pregnancy prevention. After series of planning meetings with a rugged team of Adekitan Oladipo, Noel Abiodun, Jare Fola Bolumole, and Olusegun Ayoade an advocacy workshop for the prevention of Teenage pregnancy named Making A Difference About Teenage pregnancy (MAD About TP) was decided to host three schools in Ibadan North East Local Government namely IMG High School, United Secondary School, Renascent High School, and to take place at the School Hall at Renascent High School Agugu on the 3^rd of April 2014 themed ‘Breaking The Silence’ with the aim of initiating open conversations on the incidences, causes of teenage pregnancy, and to empower the students with the knowledge to help them make sound decisions. MAD Network was able to network other positive impact driven individuals like Mr Folorunsho Moshood of Educare Trust, Dr Tomisin Olakanmi, Oluwasijibomi Soares, Oluwatosin Koya, Adebayo Adegbite, Edem Andah, Damilola Ayorinde, and Desola as volunteer educators for the advocacy workshop.

On Thursday the 3^rd of April 2014, MAD Network arrived Renascent High School Agugu for MAD about TP. Two schools showed up with their participants being Renascent High School Agugu (The host school) and IMG High School Agugu with twenty students, while United Secondary School was absent. After registrations and getting the participants informally introduced to each other, the program
properly kicked off with opening prayer from both Christian and Muslim representatives, then the second stanza of the National anthem. The Compere Olusegun Ayoade called up Adeyinka Adefemi the initiator of the whole event to the stage to give a brief talk on what MAD Network was about, teenage pregnancy and the aim of the particular event MAD About TP. Afterwards, the participants were selected serially and organised into seven groups to be educated by the volunteering educators, one educator assigned to each group. This was to be an interactive session with the participating students on the realities of teenage pregnancy, teenage sex, sexuality, and sex education. The groups were dispersed across the hall for the interactive session.

During the interactive session the volunteering educators were able to touch, the environmental causes of teenage pregnancy, the issue of teenage sex, the realities of teenage pregnancy, physiology of adolescents, factors involved in decision making about sexual practices, family planning and contraceptive practices with the vibrant contribution of the participants. During the session in all the groups, an educator visited the group as a resource person to discuss wealth creation and economic survival, by helping the students envision making a good living in their future and teaching them how to set and achieve goals in the area, also citing all volunteers present as examples they can emulate in the area of wealth creation and economic survival. The interactive session ended with each educator giving the group a task on which they brainstormed about.

After the interactive session, the participants were assembled together again to summarize what was taught and learnt in the groups while questions were gathered from the participants. Somewhere in the middle the compere got the participants chanting ‘The safest sex is, no sex’. Afterwards, the question and answer session started and the educators answered questions on getting pregnant, contraception, romantic relationship, time orientation, and adolescent physiology, incidence of rape or impending rape, also MAD Network. All questions were adequately answered by the educators while refreshments were being served.

The advocacy workshop was wrapped up with reminding the participants that the aim of Making A Difference Network was to make them different in their community with the knowledge they had now, shaping the kind of decisions they would make or help people around them make when they spread the message too. This was accompanied by sharing hand bands donated by the Positive Naija Youth Organisation in person of the co-founder Edem Andah also founder of Mentors Assistance for Youths And Entrepreneurs Iniative (MAYEIN) who was represented by Dr Tomisin Olakanmi, to give them a reminder of what they stand for and how they must make a difference. With this the agenda for the advocacy workshop came to an end and the event was closed with another prayer being the second stanza of the National Anthem, after which the participants were ushered outside for pictures.

In conclusion, the advocacy workshop wasn’t everything I envisioned but it achieved its aim as the participants had fun, learned new things, silence on teenage pregnancy was broken with our open conversations, the horizons of their minds surely expanded, they were able to dream and hope was extended to their dreams. I was glad for one thing it wasn’t the best, it could be improved with better planning and all but it was my ‘smallest deed that was better than my biggest intentions’. This is the beginning to many more to come in the nearest future. MAD Network would be moving to more schools focusing on the sub urban local government areas and locations in Ibadan first. Thank you for being a part please spread the word.