The SHARP Programme (Sensible, Healthy and Responsible People)
Twinning schools and clinics and school health visits
Secondary schools with high levels of sexual activity represent large gatherings of young people who need active, albeit largely routine, support of their sexual health. Most of it can be done at the school, just as sexuality-education is best delivered at the school.
As an interim measure, clinics and schools can be twinned, to encourage special attention to adolescent sexual health and to allow for summary statistics to be generated and supplied to the school regularly as direct measures of the success of the sexuality education programme.
Otherwise, vital action will often be unrecognised, delayed or left undone. The reservoir of STDs will tend to increase and multiply the rate of HIV transmission. Tracing of STD contacts will be more difficult. There will be more abortions, unwanted children and schoolgirl mothers. Learners will be burdened with clinic visits, which may be unaffordable, not confidential or time-consuming when they are expected at home. Mundane tasks are swamping clinics.
Community health workers led by a nurse can do routine consultation and contraception for large numbers of learners during regular, frequent school visits. Arising from this will be small numbers learners referred to clinics for STDs, pregnancy and contraception. Thus, the clinics will only deal with learners who require their resources. The community health workers will do most mundane tasks. The nurse will apply her professional judgement and procedures where needed and follow up STD contacts in consultation with the guidance counsellor and peer sexuality educator.
School health visits in Mabopane Education District (Odi Health District)
St
Peter’s and St Joseph’s clinics now operate as St Peter’s Mandlenkosi
Family Health Company (section 21 company not-for-gain) (St Peter’s) with a staff of
3 nurses and 11 community health workers. St
Peter’ is working in partnership with the Pioneers, Health and Education district
administration and six other NGOs
participating in the district health system.
In addition to family planning (including safe sex practices), care for pregnant women, mother-and-child care and treatment of STDs, St Peter’s is embarking on school visits (which it used to do). It intends providing routine sexual health care to learners and to provide clinic back-up services directly and in liaison with other clinics.
Once this local programme has been tested, it is intended to extend it to other areas which have school sexuality education as outlined in this proposal.