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Youth with Diverse Perspectives Converge in Sri Lanka
Negombo, Sri Lanka – They have come from remote mountain villages and big city universities. They work on radio shows and at sports events, in youth centres and in classrooms, as peer educators, programme officers and volunteers. They represent diverse cultures and several religions. They share a desire to break through the barriers that keep young people from the support they need to protect their reproductive health.
More than 80 young people from seven Asian countries have come together for the EU/UNFPA RHIYA Youth Summit to build the skills that can make them more effective communicators and leaders.
The reproductive health challenges these youth deal with vary from place to place. In many of the countries, as the age of marriage is rising, more young people need to find out about contraceptive options. In Cambodia, with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in Asia, unprotected sex is literally a matter of life and death. In Pakistan, coerced early marriage results in high-risk pregnancies and keeps too many women from exploring other options in life.
Yet everywhere, it seems, people are hesitant to discuss these urgent but sensitive issues.
“Parents don’t talk to their children. Teachers don’t talk to their students,” said Fahad, 18, from Bangladesh.
“We have to speak indirectly about these matters,” said Sumbal, 23, from Pakistan.
“Sexuality is a taboo subject in our schools,” says Roshni, 23, from Sri Lanka. “Anatomy is explained, but the teachers are even embarrassed to do that. And young people don’t have very good communication with their parents either.”
So are young people hungry for information? “Hungry is not strong enough -- they are starved for information,” she says.
The Reproductive Health Initiative for Youth in Asia is a large, groundbreaking programme that comprises 35 country-level projects, dozens of partner organizations and hundreds of peer educators. Its goal is to encourage responsible behavior by overcoming barriers that youth face in getting information and services, including counseling.
RHIYA is using many different strategies to overcome these barriers. Some are depicted in the photos that the Youth Summit participants submitted. Others will be discussed in future dispatches.
The Youth Summit is taking place at the newly-refurbished campus of Chinthana Training Center of the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka. The organization, which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, is one of the oldest family planning associations in the world and an affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
For more information contact:
Thierry Lucas: tlucas@unfpa.org
Galanne Deressa: deressa@unfpa.org
This section was posted on 7 November 2004. |
