Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic: Key Lessons for Adolescent Girls and Young Women
Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, many things such as churches, schools, arcades were locked in order to stop the spread of the Virus. And because of this, adolescent girls and young women in the different communities/societies are facing a lot of challenges. A challenge is something difficult that forces to make an effort.
The AGYW are facing the challenges of lack of sanitary pads majorly because most of the parents are no longer working and therefore they do not have enough money to buy some basic needs for their families such as pads for girls. And because of this, many AGYW have accepted gifts and money from boys and men to buy what they need such as sanitary pads. This later results into problems such as transactional sex.
The AGYW are also facing the problem of early and forced marriage. Because parents are poor, they decide to marry off their daughters in exchange for small things such as sugar, money etc which cannot even last for a long time but it leads to many problems such as unwanted pregnancies, torture etc.
AGYW are also facing the problem of sexual harassment majorly from our relatives and other people. They are forced I to sexual relationships and in case you refuse, they can harras you. They can even put certain conditions like if you refuse, I will chase you away from my home which can cause a lot of problems like teenage pregnancy etc. They also face problems like mistreatment from stepmothers, peer influence, child labour etc.
In the lockdown, girls should mainly abstain from sex and stay pure and should also refuse gifts from boys and men because they will be forced to have sex in order to pay back. Girls should take the responsibility to advocate for their rights and freedom from early or forced marriages. Girls should learn the social and emotional skills such as self-awareness, knowing what you want in life because if you know what you want in life, you will not live by your peers or relatives to do certain things such as having sex. Girls should also have the self-management skills, the ability to regulate our emotions, behaviours because if you can regulate your emotions and thoughts, you will not be lured by those men and boys who keep on disturbing you.
Girls should also not engage in funny relationships with boys. Above all, girls should abstain from sex and stay pure until marriage.