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for safe sex A group of young Europeans takes the stage and bursts into song and laughter following on the heels of the group from Nepal who also go through the song-and-dance routine - much to the interest and enthusiasm of young people taking part in a regional youth summit on reproductive health issues. The Sri Lankans were a more sober lot, serious and not creative - unlike their laughing, giggling counterparts from six other Asian countries. Peer educators spoke of the Sri Lankan component of a EU/UNDP funded Reproductive Health Initiative for Youth in Asia (RHIYA) and its work so far. A peer educator from Anuradhapura who works on sexual reproductive health (SRH) issues in Trincomalee, Mannar and Vavuniya region referred to the tragedy of the northeast where the young die and the young become widows. He said thousands of young people are unmarried and rape and child abuse is rampant. Most children don't go to school. Hundreds of home guards were part of the target group for the educators in providing awareness on SRH. Some 80 young people from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Viet Nam and Sri Lanka took part at the weeklong summit at the Family Planning Association's training complex at Nainamadama, a few kilometres north of Kochchikade on the Chilaw road. The participants were also provided residential facilities at the sprawling ten-acre complex. Delegates from Serbia, Georgia, Portugal, Armenia and Denmark represented Europe. According to the UNFPA, most of the 850 million young people aged 10-24 years in Asia and the Pacific don't have access to SRH information, counselling or services and providing this service is one of the aims of the RHIYA project. RHIYA projects in the seven countries involve making youth-friendly information and services available at youth centres, condom cafes and other service delivery centres, training peer educators to share SRH information with their peers; developing messages for health behaviour change through newsletters, drama, role-play, radio programmes and educating the community and religious leaders and parents on adolescent SRH issues. The three-year programme is primarily aimed at improving the sexual and reproductive health of young people. At the opening session, Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva made a salient point on the need to make Sri Lankan youth aware of sexual health issues without distorting the cultural norms too much. "There is a need to provide knowledge on reproductive health issues as a right of young people but at the same time one must be conscious of cultural traditions in this country where it sometimes is difficult to openly discuss sexual issues," Mr de Silva said. He noted that one must also not blindly follow any European model as that region is far more open on issues of this nature than conservative South Asian countries. The Pakistan delegation spoke of a lack of political commitment and a national youth policy that could have helped in pushing SRH issues on the priority list. While 85 percent of the population was aware of family planning, only 33 percent practised family planning methods. Violence against women and early marriage (girls get married at 15 years in some cases) hampered progress on SRH issues. In the mountainous region of Nepal, peer educators are planning to launch a radio programme - a most effective means of communication in a land of hills to create awareness on SRH. The participants jointly worked out new ways of awareness-building steps and mechanisms, information material, website designs and other ways to improve SRH knowledge amongst young people. -Feizal |
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