Daniela
Graphics by Daniela Lina
When it comes to teenage pregnancy rates, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, or even simple common issues when it comes to a person’s genitals, the Philippines has the all-time highest data compared to any other country in the world. It’s not so difficult to understand why that is.
Sexual education or reproductive health education can be observed by anyone who looks at the Department of Education’s curriculum and can be seen as limited or even barely there. The reason why is because of the complications with the country’s heliocentric ways and oftentimes from a closed mindset. Commonly, any topic that revolves around sex, genitals, or anything in between is considered “inappropriate”, especially when teaching younger individuals. However, despite being young, no matter what age, it’s human nature to be curious and instinctively want to try something new—whether the matter at hand is inappropriate or not.
Despite the continuous proclamations of different Executive Orders and Rights to learn about Sex Education, no one gives the actual resources for learning about it, especially to teenagers. Most of the time, family planning is provided to couples and adults rather than adolescents. This factor prevents teens from learning about their health and avoiding reproductive health issues. Even on the rare occasions that free forms of learning about reproductive health are offered, they aren’t advertised well enough for kids to properly learn them. Only a small number of people know about the Population on Commission’s free contraceptive programs and other services like free vasectomies and family planning.
With all this, it goes to show how little effort there is to teach our youth about information important to their overall lifestyle; this is unfortunate since they are the ones that face the consequences of their actions that could have been prevented if they had the right information.
If you want to know more about helpful and free sexual health education, then check out TAMA - Tamang Aral MunA ’s Facebook page!
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