The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today launches a campaign aimed to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancies in Malawi.

The program is being implemented in Machinga, Nkhatabay and Mchinji.

In an interview, National Project Officer Marietta Wildt said the campaign is a national one despite targeting few districts to ensure that the message reaches to everyone including the communities, chiefs, parents and governments.

Wildt added that they will be launching the program on Thursday and similar programs have already been launched in other African countries.

“We will use media houses across the country to campaign about early and unintended pregnancies among adolescents girls. We know that many media houses have programs that talks more about these issues as such those programs will be our platform and at the end we will reach out to everyone,” she explained.

She then said that poverty has been the major cause of early and unintended pregnancies in Eastern and Southern Africa.

She also mentioned about lack of parental guidance saying parents never open up to their children on issues to do with pregnancies which is also fueling the early and unintended pregnancies among adolescent girls.

Wildt therefore encouraged parents to open up to their children and asked other players such as chiefs, community members as well government ministries such as Ministry of Health and Education to be at forefront in campaigning against teenage pregnancies.

She also spoke about the need to end cultural practices as initiations ceremonies, Kusasa Fumbi, Kulowa kufa which contribute to the increase of early and unintended pregnancies.

Reports shows that adolescent girls who get pregnant at the age of 14 are at high risk of suffering from Fistula.