MamaYe campaign has taken up this challenge to prove that youth as activists have the ability to change attitudes and influence action especially in maternal and newborn health.
Pinda MamaYe Club
The Pinda MamaYe Club has been running since June 2014. The school was strategically chosen by the Mchinji District Team with the help of the District Education Manager. This is because last year alone 72 students dropped out of school due to early pregnancies. Heart breaking! If we look at the normal age range of primary school going children, most of these must have been teenagers, or even younger.The introduction of a MamaYe Club at this school hopes to improve or even eradicate this trend.
So, apart from fighting again teenage pregnancies, is the MamaYe Club fulfilling its purpose of working as an activists group that can help improve issues of MNH?
Violet Lustiko is a 12 year old member of the club. When the MamaYe Board Members visited the school, she shared with them her personal experience of how she managed to coerce her aunt into going for antenatal.
“My aunt had only been to antenatal once and she stopped. As she got bigger she did not know how her baby was doing. My uncle was the reason that she had stopped. I sat them down and advised her that it was only at antenatal that she can get the right information concerning the development of her pregnancy.”
It was not easy and not without judgement that Lustiko braved to face her elders. But from what she had learnt from the MamaYe Clubs she knew she had to. Unfortunately for her aunt, the baby died at birth. What we have no evidence of is whether the death of the baby was as a result of her not attending antenatal but what we do know is Lustiko is a maternal and newborn activist that has the ability to influence change regardless of her age.
Latisha Bomba, another 12 year old girl shared a story of a parent who had her daughter dropped from the club because it is not part of the school curriculum and what is taught at these clubs is not of her age. Bomba said she has made it one of her goals to ensure that the student returns to the club by sharing information and evidence with the mother on the benefits of being a MamaYe Club member.
The club patron, Mr Njovu said the club members can only achieve their goals if they themselves are flag carriers. This is to say, the members are expected to lead by example - refrain from boy-girl relationships, understand what they learning and be able to share with others.