Figure 8: Reasons for not seeking SRH services

knowledge/awareness on where to seek the service, accounting for (21.74) of all young people who did not seek services.

Figure 8: Reasons for not seeking SRH services.

Other reasons why young people did High transport costs 6.52 not seek the needed SRH services

Perceived high cost of service 8.7 during the lockdown included lack

Fear stigma / discrimination 17.39 of/challenges in accessing transport (19.57) and fear of the stigma No transport available 19.57 associated with the services (17.39). Didn’t know where 21.74 These findings are consistent with Other 26.09 results from other previous studies 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 that have identified physical distance to the health facility and costs of transport as impeding factors to young people’s access to SRH services. For instance, Mambo et al. (2020) recently reported that access to SRH was mainly inhibited by factors including lack of transport, distance from home to the facility, cost of the service and curfews. These issues were identified in qualitative interviews as one young person recollected:

During the lockdown, some of us would not even go to the health facility, we mainly used peer educators and VHTs who would bring SRHR services nearer to the community members. For the SRHR services that they did not have, we would go without them. We could not even go to the facilities because they were very far> Imagine going to Kasutaime Health Centre II that is about 5km away from Buyere to pick a condom, you just stay home (FGD Teenage Mother – Buyere, Mpungwe S/C)

In addition to the reasons for not seeking the SRH needed services, this study also examined the factors for not obtaining services among those who sought them. As indicated in figure 9, the biggest reason for not obtaining SRH services was the unavailability of health workers to provide services (40%), followed by the inability to afford the cost of the service and unavailability of the services sought each accounting for 20%.