“We live in a world where losing your phone is more dramatic than losing your virginity.”
And that world must change, says the founder of Womb Stewardship, a movement which launches in Port Elizabeth this week to encourage celibacy among youngsters.
Dr Pinkie Ngcakani-Ncula said SA’s statistics of how many children under the age of 18 were having sex were shocking.
“In the 10-18 age group there were 10,000 pregnancies last year, and outside of that there were 15,000 pregnancies which have been aborted,” the Womb Stewardship founder said at the media launch in Summerstrand on Friday.
In her own work as a medical specialist in a hospital, Ngcakani-Ncula said she encountered hyper-sexualised children, with girls in particular often losing out on their childhood – and opportunities in life – because of unwanted pregnancies.
“We are a movement that wants to educate and it must be comprehensive education of the body and the mind,” Ngcakani-Ncula said.
“I see 10- and 11-year-olds who have lost their virginity, who think that the boy will marry them.
“I do not want my grandson seeing girls as sex objects and they [girls] must not be summarised into the little space between their legs – it must start with the little space between their ears.
“We want this to be kept until they get married, if they want to get married at all.”
She said the high rate of abortions was a huge budget expense for SA, as were pregnancy and childbirth.
“It also takes money for child support grants, and there is the cost of high school dropout rates.”
Ngcakani-Ncula said her message could be unpopular but she felt it was vital.
“People who speak out about abstinence are in the minority, but we need to be respected,” she said.
“Stop fornication and premarital sex.
“Use the creativity of the mind, there are alternatives.
“Everything that we think we cannot control we legalise, like dagga and prostitution and also underage sex, but children need to be children and adults need to be adults.
“Your child is still trying to find out who they are, but they are getting mixed messages.
“We have the highest global rates of HIV, but when it comes to pass rates we are one of the lowest – we want to change that, one womb at a time.”
She said she chose the name “Womb Stewardship” as life started in the womb for everyone, male or female, but this body organ was not valued or respected enough.
“One boy can impregnate 10 girls, but if a woman has a child by 10 different men she will be the one called names.
“The mothers are the ones who lose out as they are the ones who are queuing up for the government grant.”
She said Womb Stewardship had already started its work and the directors – herself, Kholekile Ncula, Mandlakazi Jama and Nontobeko Mbobela – had been invited to speak in East London, Durban, Mthatha and Johannesburg.
Womb Stewardship launches officially on Friday at the Feather Market Centre with a programme that includes gospel group Grace SA and musicians We Will Worship.
● Further information from Nontobeko, 061-412-9558, nonto@wombstewardship.co.za