And we have to understand that beyond the four walls of our homes, there’s a reality that is affecting people, that might be younger than you or even of your age. For example, a journalism show reported 2 young girls who were the cases of teenage pregnancy. The first girl got pregnant at 13 by a man of 22, and when asked if she knew what a condom or a uterus was, she had no idea. And the second girl used beer mixed with 7 pills of acetamenophin to prevent pregnancy.

WHAT YOU CAN DO?

As we mentioned, that the reality of teenage pregnancies is completely heartbreaking. And that’s why we are listing these few things that even you can do to contribute to this fight against teenage pregnancy.

• You can start by investigating STDs, contraception, and other important topics that often don’t get taught at schools.
• You can also create awareness videos to prevent teenage pregnancies in your own city.
• You can start teaching health education workshops to students from different schools. There you can talk about bullying, stress, contraception, STDs, nutrition. And we’re sure that you’ll have an amazing experience, not only because you’ll get the opportunity to meet amazing people, but also because you’ll get the opportunity to break any myths, that they could have about sexuality.
• If you’re a teenager yourself, then you can answer teenager’s questions about sexuality as well. And in this experience, you’ll be a relatable teen whom these teenagers could trust, as you are in their own age group.
• Also, there should be more awareness & educational shows on TV related to teenage pregnancy, which could possibly shake people to the core by showing them the reality and make them more aware of this issue.

Together, by looking at the different cases of teenage pregnancies, we learned these 3 things about teenage pregnancy.

1. That women are a lot of times in a situation of power inequality. Actually, according to an institution in Perú, 99.2% of teenage pregnancies are not within teenagers, but rather between a teenager and an adult, meaning that a lot of times teenage pregnancies are a result of sexual abuse.
2. A lot of times, there’s a lot of misinformation and myths about sexuality, that even us, teenagers, spread.
3. And we must rethink the way we are preventing teenage pregnancies as societies.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT.

In this fight against teenage pregnancy, there are a lot of things that governments are also doing. For example, In the United States, they have released tons of PSAs with pregnant boys, and have also replaced the typical snacks, which were used to eat from vending machines, with diapers and baby formulas to show us the cruel reality of being a teenage parent. We have also encountered multiple radio advertisements and have also visited various pages, on which teenagers can ask anonymous questions about sexuality, reproductive rights, contraception, STDs. However, although all of these things that governments have done have been effective, there’s something we can do to be even more effective in preventing teenage pregnancies, and that is, getting teenagers involved. Of course, we know teenagers are already involved in this problem, after all, it’s up to us to get informed and prevent teenage pregnancies. However, what we mean by getting teenagers involved is actually making teens teach other teenagers. We know the effectiveness of this because we’ve actually been involved.

ROLE OF PARENTS AND SCHOOLS.

So now, we’ll tell how parents and schools, which play a major role in our society, can help prevent teenage pregnancies!

• Parents: Well, as parents, you can help by empowering your teen, by supporting them, helping them accomplish their goals, and also knowing how they’re feeling at school.
• Schools: Of course, we have to mention schools. They’re crucial in this whole story, especially since it’s up to schools to have a sex education curriculum that actually works and that teaches students relevant stuff.

To see how crucial sex education is, let us look at an example. In Bogota, a teacher implemented a sex education curriculum, which included and featured a collaboration between teens and adults, teenagers preventing teenage pregnancies, etc. The result was a reduction in the pregnancy rate from 70 in one year to only 1. This is the biggest proof that having an effective sex education curriculum can really work towards preventing teenage pregnancies.

So the message that we want to leave you with is that we can’t expect to solve teenage pregnancies if we don’t rethink the way we’re preventing them. Aside from what governments are really doing, we must all get involved. This includes the government, teachers, schools, you, and us, after all, that way, teens will start feeling much more comfortable about talking about sexuality and everything it entails.

For us, preventing teenage pregnancies is not only about collaboration between teens, it’s also about collaboration between teens and adults. And from here, we should go forward with the “joined-up action” strategy. This means that everyone, from the government to doctors, to teens, to teachers would collaborate towards a common cause, help prevent teenage pregnancies. And it is also really enriching to know that a similar strategy by Alison, a leader in England, caused a reduction of 60% in teenage pregnancies, amazing, isn’t it?

La entrada FIGHT AGAINST TEENAGE PREGNANCY se publicó primero en Perú Hunger Relief Organization.

📷 Taken by one of our volunteer in Uganda
Please visit and donate @agapehands.org

La entrada HOW THE NGO HELPS THE MOST VULNERABLE se publicó primero en Perú Hunger Relief Organization.

In Peru, SFP are explicitly incorporated into national food and nutrition security (FNS) policy frameworks and becoming part of national social protection policies and systems. At present, almost all places  in the country  are implementing SFP, and about thousands of children are given breakfast, a snack or lunch at school, which requires alot of funds.

Agape hands plays an important role in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in all its forms and contribute to ensuring the human right to adequate food for all schoolchildren. In addition, the NGO contributes to the right to a healthy life and quality education. These programmes have a potential effect on economic development at the national and territorial level and serve as a strategy to fight poverty and food insecurity. Through organized actions, within the NGO frameworks, a significant contribution can be made to the food and nutrition education of students, parents and school staff; and, therefore, to the necessary establishment of healthier eating habits and lifestyles The NGO makes it clear that no one is left behind. In the area of school feeding, this translates into a direct contribution to the fulfillment of different children and societies. The NGO have the potential to contribute significantly to zero hunger, quality education and gender equality. The NGO can also contribute to no poverty, economic growth and reduced inequalities. 

In conclusion, the NGO has come out to as for assistance from ddonators and well-wishers who would wish to help and solve such a problem in the country and it’s societies. The NGO (Agape Hand) provides links to offer well wishes donate to it’s website and other platforms to enable them eradicate such instabilities in Peru.

Volunteer Uganda @Agapehands.org

La entrada HOW WE STREGTHEN SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMS se publicó primero en Perú Hunger Relief Organization.