Kenewendo reflects on the Russian IPU meeting
Spira Tlhankane | Tuesday October 31, 2017 15:30
In an in interview with Mmegi in Sochi where she was there to witness the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students, the youthful MP said she was participating in the IPU under the forum of young parliamentarians and forum of women parliamentarians. She said she then participated in a side event that was discussing sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
“I contributed on SRH for young girls following up on my Twitter tweet meet that I had on October 25,” she said.
The economist said the meeting focused on raising awareness on sexual and reproductive health of girls and celebrating the day of the girl child. She said at the IPU, she was sharing some of the issues that came from the tweet meet.
“22% of the girls’ first sexual encounter was forced and it is something that we need to talk about tied in with raising the age of consent that I have proposed as a motion in Parliament,” she said.
Kenewendo highlighted that it is not just raising the age of consent but working on the entire eco-system and ensuring that you allow young people to experience and explore without persecution. “But you also protect them from predators so we need to work on some closed rocket kind of system and creating sensitivities in our health system when it comes to using contraceptives,” she added.
Kenewendo also said it was not a once-off conversation therefore they will continue to have it and hope to build strong systems for both the boy and girl child.
“It is important for them to understand themselves both individually and together. She said because the IPU meets twice a year and it’s not really about it but rather about the message that started in Botswana.
Kenewendo said they would continue working on it. Commenting on the festival she said it looked impressive even though she didn’t get the chance to look through everything that was being offered. The 137th IPU was held in St. Petersburg from October 14 to 18 while the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Sochi from October 14 to the 22, 2017.