Not even the sky was the limit for Florentine, a 14-year-old Grade Seven pupil at Kishapu Primary School in Kishapu District, Shinyanga. With high hopes and dreaming big about the future, she was the wonder of many teachers at the school, as she performed exceptionally well in her academic studies. Being a top performer, she always made sure that she was in the top ten best students in her class.
But, after some time, the intelligent girl began to deteriorate academically. Her class teacher, who was also the discipline teacher at the school, Ms Jenipher Simon Kiuyo noticed some changes in both behaviour and academic performance. She had dropped to a mere average pupil, with all the enthusiasm for better marks having vanished into thin air.
Florentine could sleep in class during lessons and most of the time she reported for school late. To make matters worse, she began to abscond some of her lessons for no good reason.
“At first, I thought she was pregnant, because in this community some parents have a tendance of discouraging their girl children from passing their studies so that they marry them off and as a way of getting wealth. I then remembered what we had been taught during a workshop on referral that I attended in Dodoma. I decided to refer her to a Health Care Provider from a nearby facility, who attended the same seminar,” Teacher Jenifer said.
Referral letter from teacher Jenifer to the HCP
The Health Care Provider, Ms Johana Kabwe confirmed receiving a referral letter from Teacher Jenifer before embarking on counselling sessions with the pupil.
During interaction with Florentina, Ms Kabwe discovered that she was going through a hard patch in her life. She was taking care of her siblings and her very old grandmother after the parents passed away. She had to do all house chores before going to school, and when she comes back from school, she had to think of what her siblings were going to eat and other house responsibilities, including taking care of the family’s domestic animals.
“After finding out that Florentina was overburdened, we decided to collaboratively look for her relatives and found out that they had an uncle living in the same area,” said Ms Kabwe.
The Health Care Provider and the teacher arranged for a meeting with the uncle (name withheld), who pointed out that he was aware of the situation but did not know the consequences of what Florentina was going through. Actually, for him, it was normal for a 14-year-old child to take care of the family.
Workplan prepared by teacher Jenifer during the workshop in Dodoma
After meeting the uncle and educating him about the effects of the situation, he understood and committed to take over the responsibilities of taking care of the family. Florentina regained her former glory as she began to do very well in class, such that she is expected to pass her 2024 grade seven examinations.
The above incident bears testimony of the positive effects of the collaboration between TMEPiD and the Ministry of Health. On the 22nd and 25th of July, 2024, TMEPiDin collaboration with the MoH, facilitated an orientation workshop in Dodoma under the support of UNFPA. The workshop was attended by teachers (including Jenifer and Ms Kabwe) and Health Care Providers from Dar es salaam, Shinyanga and Dodoma regions.
The workshop was aimed at getting teachers and Health Care Providers oriented on referrals and linkages of SRHR (including YFS), HIV, GBV service among adolescents and young people. The other aim was to have them develop a working relationship in facilitating linked referral services for SRH education and services including counselling. According to Ms Kabwe, when she came back from the workshop, she organized a feedback meeting with seven fellow Health Care Providers on the 2nd of August 2024, where she briefed them on what they had been taught during the workshop in Dodoma. And, on 5 August 2024, she received three referrals of which one was from Ms Jenifer, the teacher from Kishapu Primary School had also received the same training.
Ms Kabwe managed to deal with the cases, bringing closure to the affected children. On the other hand, Teacher Jenifer revealed that after the workshop, she jotted onto the noticeboard a workplan she had prepared during the training, to remind her of what she is supposed to accomplish. She is currently implementing the workplan and is expecting to conduct all the activities that she planned. With the referral initiative bearing fruit, it is important that it be spread to other areas. Besides promoting the girl child, the initiative is important in safeguarding the future generation through instilling good morals and giving them a firm foundation.
