By Amina Evangelista Swanepoel | Project Leader
We met Janet* in the municipality of Culion, an hour and a half boat ride from Coron, Palawan. At the age of 18, she already has one child. Studies show that girls who get pregnant as teenagers are likely to get pregnant again before they reach the age of 20. But not Janet, because she is one of the many women who got contraceptive implants, thanks to our nurses and midwives who traveled all the way to their far-flung island.
When Janet gave birth, she had to take a leave of absence from school, but she dreamed of returning to finish senior high school. Her mother was willing to help care for the baby, but Janet worried about what would happen if she had a second unplanned pregnancy. Now, Janet can instead focus on catching up on the work she missed, and moving forward with her studies, as the implant enables women to prevent unplanned pregnancy for up to 3 years.
While our nurses and midwives were in Culion providing contraceptive services, we also had teachers in other parts of our city and province, providing age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education in schools. Since your contribution to our project, our educators taught 299 students from Palawan State University the basics of reproductive health and HIV, and taught 1,176 5th and 6th graders about empathy in order to reduce bullying and peer pressure. Our team will continue to reach thousands of young people in the coming months -- in 2019 they taught over 15,000 young people in 55 schools!
We also continued to run our two clinics in Puerto Princesa, one of which is a Youth Clinic catering exclusively to young people aged 24 and below. In the two months since you donated to our project, the Youth Clinic provided services to nearly 300 young people.
We’ve started 2020 off strong and are continuing to provide education and clinical services to Palawan’s young people. Thank you for your help and for continuing to support us as we work to reduce teen pregnancy and keep girls in school!
*not her real name
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