Halleluah Mangombe-chirisa

The Church Youth and Sex: Case in Reproductive Health Programming in a Selected Church in Harare, Zimbabwe Halleluah Mangombe-chirisa

The youth stage is a period of growth faced with a lot of reproductive health challenge including unwanted pregnancies, abortions, contraction of STIs and HIV and AIDS. Worldwide the youth population is over a billion (World Bank 2007), which makes them a significant proportion of the world population. In addition, these youths will eventually have to take over productive and reproductive roles; hence it is important for them to survive through this stage to adulthood. The motivation for this study came from the need to investigate common belief held by many people that youths in the church are abstaining from sex. Resultantly, it is assumed that they are safe from contracting STIs and HIV and AIDS as compared to their counterparts outside the church. The study was aimed at finding out programmes available to youths which address reproductive health and how helpful these programmes are to them. The study was carried out in the four regions of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA) church in Msasa area in Harare.