Adolescent health. (Cover Story: Reproductive Health).

I believe that at some point in our lives, someone or something, touches us and changes our lives forever. My experiences in development work and my work now have given, me such opportunities.

It happened tome again in Bokod through the lines of a song sang by over 200 high school students of the Immaculate Conception School. I was with a team consisting of an Education Supervisor, a Population Program staff and a non-government organization worker. We were on a special mission for Adolescent Health and Youth Development. As the program began and the high school students breathed life to the lines of this song, I was touched and stunned by its message:

Give the children a chance

To love and grow

Give the children a chance.

To let their voices be heard...

I remember how much I wanted to sing with them but I couldn't. I choked. For a moment; I felt like I was in a different world, a world where everybody seems to be in need.

Then, memories of the past started to drift into my mind: memories of boys and girls I came across who made a difference in my life, memories of a teenaged girl's loss of her three-day old son, memories of a young woman losing her life because of an unsafe abortion, and memories of children an d adolescents robbed of their childhood because of misguided information about their health.

Suddenly I came back to my senses and heard a plea: "Give the children a chance to let their voices be heard..."

It is a plea I have heard from children all too often.

THE YOUTH SITUATION

Indeed, the children and youth are pleading to us everyday, in many different ways. Sometimes their call comes in the form of a survey revealing to us how unsatisfied they are with their teachers and instructors' knowledge on population and sex-related issues. In some instances their appeal takes the form of the increasing incidence of pre-marital/teenage sex and teenage pregnancies, sexually-transmitted infections and abortions and birth--and abortion-related deaths, particularly in Baguio City.

In fact, the Commission on Population-CAR in its State of the Philippine Population Report of 2000 revealed that young pregnancies in the Philippines account for three out of four maternal deaths, 30% of births in the reproductive ages, 74% of all illegitimate births among 15-24 years olds, 17% of induced abortions and 12% of normal deliveries.

The Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey (YAFS II) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) in 1994 reported that among pregnant teenagers in the country, 16% had induced abortions, greater than the number of delivery cases.

These are just some issues that define the problems associated with adolescent reproductive heath in the country and they hardly present a reassuring picture of our country's future leaders, decision-makers and parents.

True, with the country already having more than enough in its hands, some of us may already be Viewing young people's sexual behavior as a purely personal or private concern.

We shall see.

PUBLIC POLICY

The Filipino youth today forms the broad base of the Philippine and CAR population. The National Statistics Office (NSO) figures in 1995 revealed that 13.7 million Filipinos were in the 15-24 age group, which meant they accounted for 20% of the total Philippine population. Children below 15 years old, on the other hand, account for 38.7% of the Philippine population. Thus, if we were to add up all these figures, about 58.7 percent of the population are composed of children and youth.

With these wealth, of human resources, of talents and of competencies, also comes a certain degree of vulnerability to early sexual activities that result to teenage pregnancies, abortions, maternal deaths and sexually transmitted diseases.

And with these comes the role of the State in public policy.

The sexual activities among the youth coupled by sexual maturity at increasingly younger ages for both females and males affect the rest of the country as these involve health risks that drain the government's limited resources. Therefore, part of a sound and effective government planning is to guard and promote the welfare of the country's population.

INFLUENCE OF GENDER

The YAFS II is a nationwide Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey on reproduction and fertility among 11,000 Filipino youth ages 15-24. One of its findings revealed that most female respondents had their First sexual encounter without their consent. 10 percent confessed that they were forced to have sex with a man.

This implies that the unequal gender relations evident between young, intimate partners is putting the females at risk.

Therefore this sends us signals that promoting gender equality should start with the young. This should also go hand in hand with a more advanced sex education that should be given in the elementary levels of education.

Equally important is the inculcation of values both in the family and the school. All of these can help make the youth appreciate their right to self-expression guided by an ethics of responsible sexuality.

Parents can also do their part by constantly supervising and providing accurate information on adolescent reproductive health to their children. Therefore, parents and other adults should be re-educated in handling sex education activities with their children to dispel the fears that early discussions with teenagers on sexuality and fertility would encourage early sexual activity among them.

CALL FOR ACTION

Although there are multiple socioeconomic and cultural factors affecting early and sexual activities among the youth, the United Nations Fund fop Population Activities (UNFPA) in its State World Population. Report 2000 identifies one major response that the Philippine government can adopt. UNFPA encourages other governments and policy makers to make a difference by "passing and enforcing laws that protect girls and boys from adult abuse and early marriage".

Thus part of this protection is the provision of medical/health services to the youth and the provision of accurate and pertinent information on adolescent reproductive health. This would consequently boil down to the earlier proposition of re-educating adults (whether trainers or parents) in handling, sex or population education.

The need to review the effectivity / efficiency of our sex/population education program is imperative as students have time and time again, expressed the need for more relevant, useful and up dated information on ARH in schools.

Responding to all these calls means heading the youth's plea: to give them chance at a better life not through our own eyes and not only according to our standards. Giving them the proper, sufficient information and giving them the choices and decisions will not only empower them but will also make sure that early sexual activities may be prevented. We must stop underestimating the youth's capacity to understand sexuality and sex-related concepts and begin to view them as capable, responsible members of society.

Annie D. Calimquim works at the Commission on Population--CAR. She used to work at IGOROTA.