Girl learners as young as 12 are being injected with contraceptives at schools by nurses from the North West department of health – sometimes without their parents’ consent.
The Child Care Act states that no medicine may be administered to any child under the age of 14 without a parent’s informed consent.
But 12-year-old Lerato from Kloofwaters Intermediate School near Rustenburg was injected with Nur-Isterate, a contraceptive that lasts about two months, without her mother’s knowledge, in November last year.
Kloofwaters Intermediate’s principal, Ben Juma, confirmed that contraceptive injections were administered in November to about 10 girls, but that all the girls were 15.
He said the practice has been going on for years, but could not say exactly how long.
Lerato said a mobile clinic that provides primary health care services to rural and farming communities arrived at her school in November.
“Our teachers said all girls of my age and upwards should go to the mobile clinic. When we got there the nurses told us they were going to inject us so that we cannot fall pregnant because anything can go wrong during December holidays, like being raped.”
Lerato’s mother said she had no prior knowledge of the plans to administer the injections, and had not been provided with written information or a consent form.
“I was surprised when my child told me she has been injected with something so that she cannot fall pregnant during the holidays,” she said. “At first I could not believe her, until she showed me the [family planning] card. As a parent I feel the school should have consulted me before, however well-intentioned their motive. I mean, what if her body reacted badly and she collapsed?”
Juma says that he held meetings with the parents at the school to “alert them about this development and I invited them to lodge written objections, if they had any, to file for future reference. However, I do not remember receiving any objection from any one of them.
“Subsequent to that I have, admittedly, not bothered to check with them again. It is a mistake we would try to correct in the future.”
A family planning programme is implemented by mobile clinics at schools throughout the province, according to Ramphelane Morewane, the regional health manager for Bojanala district, which includes Kloofwaters.
But sometimes health workers find themselves “in a catch-22 situation” where girls younger than 14 approach them for contraceptives without their parents’ knowledge or consent, Morewane said.
“Should we refuse to attend to the child because the parent is not there [to give consent], or should we assist the child as is our responsibility?
“If a parent has an objection based on religious or traditional grounds, we will certainly respect that view. However, to date I do not remember ever receiving any complaint or objection from parents about our services.”
Tukisang Senne, programmes manager of the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa, said that, “If it is true that no consent was obtained from parents, then I would say the health officials have committed professional misconduct.”
Juma and the school’s teaching staff encourage the girls to have the injection: a number of school-going teenagers have fallen pregnant – and two of them have given birth on the school’s premises.
Other girls show signs of being sexually abused and Juma is currently involved as a witness in one such court case. Teachers add that poverty in the area motivates some parents to prostitute their children.
Superintendent general of the North West department of education Anis Karodia said he is aware that the health department has a family planning programme running, but is “certainly not aware of the details, especially where children under the age of 14 are involved”. Karodia said that, as far as the department is concerned, schools are “no-go areas” for children under the age of 14 to be injected with contraceptives.
He said his department will investigate what happened at Kloofwaters Intermediate School and take appropriate action if necessary.
Source: Put On the Pill Without Permission (allAfrica.com)
March 28th, 2004 | 
