{"id":11242,"date":"2020-05-21T12:22:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T12:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=3635"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:41:11","slug":"ensuring-the-continuation-of-sexual-reproductive-health-and-rights-among-the-youth-during-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/childrens-ryt-highlight\/ensuring-the-continuation-of-sexual-reproductive-health-and-rights-among-the-youth-during-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Need for access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As the world battles with containing the continued spread of Covid-19 by imposing lockdowns and social distancing, there is a great risk of a further reduction in access to sexual and reproductive health rights services in Africa. The lockdowns and restrictions in movement have resulted in increased reports of domestic violence and disruptions in access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) services.<\/p>\n

\"\"Globally there has been a noted reduction on SRHR services and support with limited or unavailability of condoms, contraceptives, HIV testing and treatment. Africa, in particular, before the virus has been struggling with implementation of Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063 and the Maputo Protocol, key developmental instruments on gender equality. While the number of people infected and dying of the virus on the continent has been significantly lower in comparison to the rest of the world, however, the socio-economic effects will act as drivers for poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes.<\/p>\n

Young people, who year after year continue to be the most marginalized population, are faced with their own challenge, that of a gloomy future as economists predict major job losses in the coming months. This on top of the 13,4 million young people, already grappling unemployment on the continent. Such unavoidable job losses on the continent, are bound to leave young people in very precarious conditions and will certainly increase their chances of being involved in risky behaviors such as transactional sex<\/em>, just to put food on the table. Subsequently, there is bound to be an increase in teenage pregnancies and HlV infections in the coming months, especially among child and youth-headed homes.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Webinar that was organised by the Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust on the impact of the novel Coronavirus on SRHR in Africa that took place on 20 May 2020 themed the Approaches to ensure continuation of SRHR amidst COVID-19 & Beyond, <\/strong>the Executive Director of SRHR Africa Trust<\/strong> (SAT),<\/strong> Jonathan Gunthorp noted that the virus has already taken the \u00a0attention away from other healthcare challenges. He said, \u201cThe situation is going to get worse when more people get infected and health facilities will become dangerous and women will not be able to access SHRH services.<\/p>\n

This Webinar sparked interesting conversations from our partners in the sexual reproductive health and rights sector and was moderated by Levi Singh from AfriYAN and a Youth representative of SRHR AIDS Trust. The speakers in the panel included Jonathan Gunthorp of SRHR AIDS Trust, \u00a0Chivuli Ukwimi \u00a0of Hivos Southern Africa, Juliette Kimotho \u00a0of FAWE, Joseph Maniragena of African Monitor and Dr Lamboly Kumboneki \u00a0of the SADC Secretariat. To catch up on the webinar,\u00a0 Watch here<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  As the world battles with containing the continued spread […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[742,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-childrens-ryt-highlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}