Yarrowkabra seeks help as it battles high rate of teenage pregnancy

By Leah Hernandes

A village that recently experienced infrastructural transformation is now looking to address and bring an end to the social issue of teenage pregnancy that is quite prevalent in the community.
Yarrowkabra with a population of just over 5000 people is seeking the relevant intervention that will assist in ending the scourge which has been causing its youthful generation to become early fathers and mothers without extensive knowledge of parenting or the effects and disadvantages it would have on both their lives and the community at large.
Speaking to <<<Guyana Times>>>, Community Development Council (CDC) Chairman Corrine Wilson highlighted reasons for this phenomenon.
She is of the belief that the high number of teenage pregnancies is as a result of not having a secondary school in the community, since most schools that local students obtain after writing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) are some distance away.
Owing to transportation expenses, the low-income families are forced to keep their child/children away from school.
“When they pass to go to other secondary schools, I don’t know for what reason they don’t go … the issue is that they have to go very far for these secondary schools; for example, the children that wrote Common Entrance (earlier name of NGSA) this year, most of them got Dora Secondary … Dora is very far up the [Linden-Soesdyke] Highway and the school is very far in, you have to walk in for miles to get to the school, I don’t know what effect it would have on the children, because some of the parents already don’t want to send them there. All the other schools fill up and this is the only one they got now …. for the past two years, we had girls around 14 – under the age of consent – getting pregnant and maybe because this is a remote area …. some of them don’t have a good educational background,” Wilson stated.
Wilson is pleading with the Government to construct a secondary school in the Yarrowkabra area very soon, which would ultimately benefit the students while helping to solve the community’s concerns such as school dropouts and teen pregnancies.
The CDC Chairman noted that she made several attempts to contact the Welfare Department, but they proved futile.
Back in 2017, workshops and programmes were held by the CDC and Welfare Department within the Education Ministry for youths, both male and female, within the community with the objective of them learning a skill.
They were taught how to tie-dye, and prepare local dishes and other crafts. In addition, they benefited from an anger management course during the programme. It highlighted possible solutions to anger problems and ways of coping with issues which may cause it.
These programmes were aimed at empowering youths while making them independent individuals. Sixteen persons graduated from the programme.
More of these programmes are expected to be held soon as they try to conquer the various social ills within the community.