Some youths who regard themselves as too ‘spiritual’, are shunning Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services in the country. This was revealed when Blantyre Synod Health and Development Commission (BSHDC) conducted a monitoring and evaluation meeting with its Health and Development Committees (HDC) at Blantyre City Presbytery Offices on Thursday.
Speaking at the meeting, committee member for Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS), one of the committees of HDC, Canon Chilungamo, said one of the challenges that they are facing when reaching out to the youths is constant resistance by some youths who regard themselves as too ‘spiritual’ to learn and attend SRH services.
“A majority of youths in churches pay a deaf ear to our messages because they think they are against their spiritual wellbeing. They regard themselves as too holy and saints and think SRH messages are demonic. This is posing as a challenge because they are the same youths who are at a high risk of SRH problems as revealed by the survey we did in Ndirande and Kachere,” said Chilungamo.
In his remarks, Church and Society Programme Coordinator for BSHDC, Gregory Mtemanyama, said it is very unfortunate that in this day and age some youths could be resisting such important messages which affect their day to day lives.
“Youths should tend to realise that when organizations are coming up with these kinds of programmes and interventions, they have their welfare at heart so it is important that they should take a leading part in the programmes,” he said.
He further advised the community workers to be working hand in hand with the youths’ resident priests so that they should eliminate this practice.
BSHDC has been implementing a Building Community Capacity to identify and Respond to their Health and Development Needs project in the Southern Region with funding from Inter Church Development Cooperation (ICCO).
