More sex education planned for Kiribati

Transcript

The Kiribati minister of education says the school curriculum will be improved to ensure young people know more about sex, but more information also needs to come from the home.

Maere Tekanene has been in New Zealand for an open hearing on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Pacific.

She told Mary Baines what came out of the meeting:

MAETE TEKANENE: It's very useful that young men also feel responsible for what they do, for example, they should know when they can make someone pregnant, and they need to be responsible for what they've done instead of having the young girl taking the whole responsibility when she's having the child. That has been happening in Kiribati as well. I also think that parents need to inform their children to be responsible as well and to be ready to know that it is important that they are responsible in what they do with regards to sexual activities.

MARY BAINES: Do you think there's a taboo around sex in Kiribati?

MT: I think, kind of, well I would say a taboo - we're just not allowing ourselves to discuss it because we think they'll pick it up anyhow. But for us as adults we have gone through all these experiences. I think there's nothing wrong in talking to our young children. So I think these kind of discussions need to take place between a parent and child. Because we can't always be living with our children, so they need to know how to be safe. We have a young person joining us that shared how he wasn't aware of the body changes that he was going through, and he wished his parents told him that these things are happening to you. I'm from Kiribati, we have a culture of this when we have the young girl has their first menstruation. When I attend family gatherings of that kind I would say to the young girl, "This is a time when you know your body changes and you can get pregnant if you have a relationship with boys, if you have sex." You know, I say it openly to the young girl.

MB: And sex education in schools - is that a big part of the curriculum?

MT: It is already there. But to me, I think we need to improve it. We need to cover the cultural, social aspects which are not in the curriculum. You know, even the economic impacts of it as well. You know sometimes you marry too early, you haven't got a job yet, who is going to look after your kids? And sometimes we don't open up to children in these kind of discussions as well.

MB: Are contraceptives readily available to those who want them?

MT: Yes, but we don't allow them in schools yet in Kiribati, but they are readily made available in shops, in clinics they are available as well but we still need more. You know we have an NGO in Kiribati which is going a very good job at that - they have a mobile clinic, go out and raise awareness, do drama in communities and make a display of these in the community so that the communities are informed of the available means of contraceptives that they can use. So it's quite conservative sometimes for those who are Catholics in our community. But I think we are, this NGO and the government is working in collaboration to a good understanding that it's very important to raise responsible parenting.

MB: Abortion is illegal in Kiribati. Are there moves to change that?

MT:  It is still illegal. It has been discussed once, I think five years back it has been raised to parliamentarians but it wasn't. But I think there is need to advocate more on that. I think the only strong aspect of abortion is when there is case of pregnancy that happens in an incest relationship, I think that's where it applies, that is not understood yet by many of our people. The second is that sometimes there is a pregnancy that happens through a forced, or rape, you know, so these things need to be made understood better. If we wish to push abortion it's got to be understood well by the community why. Because it may not happen - it will happen for very rare cases which may happen on the lines that I mentioned earlier.