Sex Education in Cameroon
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 04/Dec/2009 14:09, 34 days ago
When I agreed to oversee arrangements for the Global Day for HIV/AIDS awareness on the first of December in Maga I originally imagined my role would be largely logistical. In some respects it was- I spent a large chunk of my last weekend in Maroua, the province capital, going round pharmacies and hospitals on the back of a motorbike taxi trying to find a place to bulk buy condoms. In the end a local Chieftain who works at the regional delegation for healthcare sold me nine hundred for£4.50 while we chatted about the English weather. I also failed to get hold of free HIV/AIDS tests, as Cameroon’s funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS has been suspended for the next five years because the last batch of funding disappeared (Cameroon's reputation for corruption is very welldeserved).Nevertheless, when the Deputy Head Master of the Maga lycee asked at a meeting whether Tchipounama and I would be able to talk to a group of girls about HIV and AIDS the next day we agreed. He then asked whether we’d in fact be able to talk about how to avoid pregnancy and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as well, which we thought we’d be able to deal with. This is a big problem in Maga; this academic year six girls have already had to leave the lycee (where girls are already significantly outnumbered) because of pregnancy.We managed to borrow a book published as guidance for workers at family planning clinics, and Tchipounama spent the evening before giving me a crash course on the French vocabulary that had neither been taught at GSCE or could be found in my school dictionary (my strong grounding in Latin erotic poetry came in useful here...). After practising giving instructions on how to put on a condom in French over breakfast the next morning I felt reasonably prepared.When we arrived at the lycee the next morning it turned out we’d be speaking as part of a panel including the Deputy Head Master, a male nurse from the hospital, the male Delegate for Social Affairs, the male President of the lycee’s parents’ association, and a male worker at the local Council. My persistent objection that the girls might not feel comfortable talking about sex in front of so many men was brushed aside as ridiculous. The men, the Deputy Head informed me, would even be able to do a better job than women because they could explain how a man’s mind works when he tries to seduce a girl. To make matters yet more difficult Maga is a fairly small society; every man on the panel had both close relations and neighbours amongst the girls at the session.The advice of the other panel members was centred on two main premises. The first was that a girl would be forever shamed among before family, friends, society and particularly her father if she got pregnant while she was unmarried so she should stay away from boys. The second was that if a girl is concerned about any sexual matter, whether it be urges for a boy, that she is infected with an STI, or that she is pregnant she should talk at once and without hesitation to her father, who will give her advice. The deputy headmaster quoted an old saying:“When you see something you really want at the market you will buy it, take it home, and guard it.” If a boy really wants a girl, he explained, he will not just sleep with her, he will go to her father, buy her with a dowry, and take her back to his house in marriage. When the Deputy Headmasterannounced that the female condom protects girls against STIs (it doesn’t) I asked to be given the floor to talk about prevention and contraception.I talked about the ABC method of STI prevention (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms) and emphasised the importance of standing up to boys and being able to say no to sex or insist on using a condom. I then finished off with a demonstration of how to use a condom.Imagine it if you will: a classroom of seventy teenage girls who have just been told the solution to all their sexual problems is to talk with their fathers, a row of boys staring wide-eyed through the window, and me standing at the front in a panel of distinguished citizens of Maga waving a condom and trying desperately to remember how to say“after you withdraw from your sexual partner” in French.I think the girls found this useful, although I’m not sure how my fellow panel members took it! The President of the Parents Association sprang up immediately after this to talk some more about abstinence and how condoms often break (this is infuriatingly counterproductive, as although abstinence is the only 100% effective method of preventingpregnancy and STIs, properly applied condoms provide very good protection) but the Delegate for Social Affairs asked me whether I’d be able to get hold of some female condoms so I could explain how they work next week.Tchipounama and I spoke privately with a number of girls after the session, and they confirmed that the girls were scared to speak up in front of a row of men including their deputy headmaster and for several of them, their father or uncle. They also pointed out that a lot of girls were already sexually active, and needed advice on how to stay safe and avoid getting pregnant, and that for many of them if they mentioned any sex related issues at home, especially with their fathers, they would be yelled at for being indecent. We’re trying to figure out how they can get round the Deputy Headmaster’s objections to organise a female only meeting so they can openly discuss their concerns; I don’t want to be the one to push it, as I think it will be rejected as a crazy English idea.