Feature Stories
Adolescent Reproductive Health Workshop
24 January 2007
DANG — Working with rural communities, UNFPA staff has found that many health workers do not know the reproductive health needs of young people. Indeed, many young people do not know their own needs, and are shy to talk to local health care professionals.
To help solve this problem, UNFPA Dang, a district in the West of Nepal has organised workshops on reproductive health for young people. In January, two such programs were run, one for disabled adolescents (including blind, deaf and the physically handicapped) and the able-bodied.
Visiting the programme for able-bodied school children in Tulsipur, Dang, UNFPA staff was very pleased with the students' level of knowledge. Organised by the district Non Governmental Organization Coordination Committee, the workshop was attended by thirty students from five different schools and included an equal number of girls and boys, lower caste and indigenous students. When asked questions on HIV/AIDS, the students highlighted various ways of how the disease is contracted and how it can be prevented. The students also attended training on: transformation in the body system during adolescence, sex, condom application, dangers of early marriage and childbirth and sexually transmitted diseases. The idea of the program was to take the new knowledge gained back to their schools and discuss reproductive health issues with their peers. A confidential box would be placed in each school for students to ask any questions they may have privately. The young people participating in the program were enthusiastic to share reproductive health information with their schoolmates. As word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of transmitting health messages in developing countries, educating youth leaders in reproductive health is vital.
The reproductive health workshop for disabled adolescents, run by a local non governmental organization with UNFPA support, was also a welcome success. Thirty young people attended from various village district committees. Disabled children may not always receive information on reproductive health, due to a lack of specialised teachers. For this workshop, both Braille for the blind and a sign language translator for the deaf were provided, to make the sessions as interactive as possible. The young people attending told UNFPA staff that they learned a lot from the workshop, and requested more to be held in the future.
Luisa Ryan, UNFPA Evaluation and Monitoring Officer
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