While commenting about the high numbers of teenage mothers in Busoga sub region and the futile church preachings on abstinence, RX Radio presenter Daniel Omara has proposed that churches change their mode of messaging about early sex to teenagers.
A study in the eastern region of Uganda indicated that christian founded hospitals registered 4,062 cases of teenage pregnancies after the July 2021 lockdown.
More interestingly the study also found out that in the Chiefdom of Kigulu where most of the teenage pregnancies were registered, there was a 25 year old grandfather whereas some girls at 24 and 23 year were already grandmothers.
This prompted the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) to recommend specialized family planning to teenage mothers after their first pregnancy.
“I have something to ask of the church, why do they think the same message is going to be consistently working especially if it's preached badly?” Daniel asked.
“I’d say that if you're going to preach about abstinence, help me understand why, don't say, “God said so because I've never met this dude.” Like break it down for me rationally because I think that's what is missing. But don't tell me to abstain because you told me to or because I’ll die,” he added.
Fatboy, amazed by the ages of some grandparents in the region believed the closure of schools led to the odd happenings and he further asked Daniel what he would do to solve the crisis in Iganga.
“First of all I’d give them other stuff to do because idleness and boredom are the problem number one. The two have a way of arousing you, you start looking for things. So I’d first of all look for more engaging activities to keep them busy and secondly helping them understand how this impacts them,” he said.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.