A call to action by the Philippine Information Agency highlights the ever-growing need for education in the face of reproductive health misconceptions. In a recent presentation, the Assistant Secretary of the National Youth Commission (NYC) of the Philippines addressed his audience with startling statistics from a demographic and health survey. He explained, “fifty percent of the youth were unaware that a woman can get pregnant after only one sexual intercourse [experience], 50 percent were not aware that condoms can reduce the risk of getting HIV and 28 percent believed that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is curable”. He concluded by calling for more educational initiatives to address this vast knowledge gap among youth.
In Tanzania, a family planning initiative by the nonprofit Marie Stopes International does just that. The recently launched program (entitled Chagua Maisha, or “the Good Life”) seeks to diminish the number of girls that receive unsafe abortions or drop out of college due to pregnancy. According to the article, in Tanzania as little as 16 percent of women aged 16 to 24 use family planning methods, while 25 percent of women aged 15 to 19 years are either pregnant or already have children. In 2010, 8,000 young women dropped out of college due to pregnancy. The program focuses on colleges to help ensure that the younger generation will have the accurate information needed to make important reproductive health decisions.
Photo courtesy of Marie Stopes International
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