The UN created an agenda for the prevention of adolescent pregnancy that includes training for teachers. The measure may help break the “cycle of poverty.” Venezuela has some of the worst statistics in the area.
The UN works in Venezuela to reduce adolescent pregnancies and help women to have a life project in one of the countries with the highest fertility rate in the region.
“At the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) We work so that every pregnancy is desiredeach birth is safe and each youngster reaches its full development,” the local coordinator of the UN agency’s programs told Lusa.
Andrea Pereira indicated that UNFPA has “a work agenda for the prevention of adolescent pregnancy, which is a social and public health problem”, which “represents a violation of the human rights of the adolescent population“.
The case of Venezuela can be identified through adolescent fertility statistics, which are high compared to other countries in Latin America, which is already the region with the second highest rates in the world,” he explained.
Andrea Pereira stressed that “being a country with the highest adolescent fertility rates in Latin America is a serious problem,” represents what is called “reproduction of poverty, because a pregnant teenager is very likely to drop out of schooleducate and raise the child in unfavorable conditions, without education and with a precarious job”.
“Very likely, as the research says, as a single mother the cycle of poverty continues to reproduce itselfhe highlighted, specifying that there are cases of up to five generations of families in which the great-grandmother, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter were also adolescent mothers, all very young.
The coordinator mentioned that sometimes adolescents face situations of having a male partner much older than them, having been sexually abused and having an unwanted pregnancy in her lifetime.
It is a real problem of Venezuelan society, of adolescents, and there are work proposals supported by UNFPA through a National Plan for the Prevention and Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy, which has several lines of work, one of which is sexual education comprehensive,” he said. the said.
Andrea Pereira explained that they are training teachers on sexuality and human rights with a gender and intercultural approach.
If we manage to transfer this step of teacher training so that sexual education reaches schools and adolescents with quality, we will be taking a very important step so that they have information that helps them make appropriate decisions”, he stressed.
The training is accompanied by sexual and reproductive health care, professional consultations, following clinical protocols and the Venezuelan legal framework established by the Organic Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (LOPNA). “The programs are focused on building a life project. And this is important because it aims, among other things, to raise awareness to delay the start of sexual relations as much as possible, ”he explained.
According to national statistics, being in the educational system is a protective factor for adolescents, sexual intercourse begins later.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, studies have been carried out on the adolescent fertility rate in which Venezuela appears in second place, with one of the highest rates, more than 80 per thousand, that is, out of every thousand adolescents between 15 and 19 years. years, more than 80 are already mothers, 20 points above the average for the region, ”she indicated.
According to the coordinator, Venezuelan legislation establishes that pregnant adolescents must remain in the educational system complete their education, but the reality is that they tend to be excluded, have a hard time graduating and getting better jobs.
Source: Observadora
