As cases of HIV infections among adolescents continue to rise, school-going girls have been urged to abstain and keep off sexual temptations during the Christmas festivities.

Healthcare professionals from Kiambu County regretted that many girls end up dropping out of school after the merry-filled holiday due to early involvement in sex.

Some of the girls are said to be victims of circumstances such as poverty and are often lured into illicit sex by men who sweet talk them with basics such as money to purchase sanitary pads.

According to Kiambu County director of public health Theresia Wanjiru, who also coordinates adolescents and young people under the school health program, poverty is partly to blame for premature sex among young girls who risk contracting sex-related diseases and unwanted teenage pregnancies.

Speaking at the sprawling Kiandutu slums in Thika, Kiambu County, a village that is said to have a high prevalence rate of sexual intercourses among adolescents, Wanjiru advised the young girls to avoid partaking harmful vices such as drug abuse, alcoholism, crime and sexual immorality that endangers their lives.

Wanjiru who spearheaded issuance of essential menstrual hygiene products such as sanitary pads, undergarments, soaps, food items among other Christmas gifts donated by Kiambu County government urged the girls to celebrate the festivities responsibly for a better future.

Wanjiru urged young people to engage in sports, exercises and healthy walks during the season she insisted can make or break their future.

Her sentiments were echoed by Ngoingwa PCEA church pastor Samuel Kimani Mutura who decried that young girls are weak sexual targets by immoral men.

Kimani stated that the girls’ risk having early pregnancies that will compel them to drop out of school, take up outlawed substances that are unhealthy for them among other challenges during the festivities.

According to Rachael Mbaire Maina, a community health promoter at Kiandutu slums, early pregnancies at the informal settlement can be blamed on poverty.

Young girls who spoke to journalists committed to keeping safe and abstaining from sexual intercourses during the Christmas season to safeguard their future.