Curbing teen pregnancy a team–and tribe–effort

ILOILO CITY—The village of Maligang in Kiamba town in Sarangani province has a population of around 2,000 but has one of the highest incidents of teenage pregnancy in the country.

In 2015, a fifth of pregnant women were adolescents (with the youngest aged 10 years old). This rose to 29 percent in 2016 and 31 percent last year. Teenage pregnancy in the village was higher than the 25 percent prevalence in the whole Kiamba town, which is composed of 19 barangays.

Earlier this year, a group of young health professionals embarked on a six-month mission to bring down those numbers.

Presenting themselves as Team TeenPuyog, they trained 25 peer educators, including Maligang residents, who in turn conducted education and training sessions with 269 adolescents in the village.

Dialogues with T’boli

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Mindful of the problem’s behavioral and cultural roots, the team also engaged in dialogues with parents and leaders of the T’boli tribe, which comprises 96 percent of the population.

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Within six months, the project dubbed “IDOLescent Matter (Motivate, Advocate, Testify, Teach, Empower, Relate)”  showed positive results.

Only two teen pregnancies were recorded in the first quarter of this year, just a third of the six cases during the same period last year. In the second quarter, there were only eight cases, again lower than the 11 recorded in the same period in 2017.

The team was also able to publish a training manual and peer educator guide that may be used in other villages especially the indigenous communities facing similar problems.

With these accomplishments, Team TeenPuyog emerged as the grand champion in this year’s edition of the Ideas Positive program of Unilab Foundation Inc. Launched in 2012, Ideas Positive encourages the youth to come up with and implement measures addressing public health issues in their own communities.

Composed of a doctor, three nurses and a finance officer, this year’s winning group bested 15 other finalists and received their prize in ceremonies held last month at the Iloilo Convention Center.

Also reaching the finals were projects helping the elderly, hypertension or diabetes patients, and children with special needs or suffering from malnutrition.

Culturally sensitive

Claresse Ann Bautista,  Team TeenPuyog leader, said IDOLescent Matter sought to break the “cycle of teenage pregnancy” in Maligang, which had been attributed to various factors like poverty, peer pressure, arranged marriages and lack of parental guidance to steer minors away from risky sexual relations.

One of the challenges was the need to keep the activities culturally sensitive to the beliefs and customs of the T’boli tribe. Hence, plans were drawn up in consultation with tribal leaders and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Bautista said.

 

No to condom distribution

Educational sessions put a stress on sexual abstinence because the distribution of condoms and other contraceptives was not allowed by the tribal leaders. Teenage pregnancy and its prevention were openly discussed.

Cherish Pae Rubia, 16, one of the peer educators trained by the team, recalled having some difficulty managing time for the activities since she and her fellow volunteers were all students attending class. Still, they were able to follow the schedule thanks to everyone’s commitment.

The youths were taught to develop a responsible attitude and not to succumb to peer pressure, while the role of parents was emphasized. “They were made to understand that adolescent children should not be forced into marrying someone just because they came home late or displayed physical affection with the opposite sex,” Bautista said.

Seed fund

With a seed fund of P100,000, Team TeenPuyog was able to ensure the project’s sustainability by earning the confidence of the Department of Health and municipal health office, from which they obtained additional financing.

They also successfully swayed barangay and municipal councils into passing legislation institutionalizing IDOLescent Matter.

Such support will be crucial as the project ultimately aims for a 50-percent reduction in adolescent pregnancies in the area in the next five years.

In a speech during the award rites, Unilab Foundation Inc. executive director Lilibeth Aristorenas lauded all the teams who took part in Ideas Positive 2018 for having the initiative and innovative spirit to promote healthy living among Filipinos, one community at a time.

These projects only proved “that millennials are taking over the world to build a better future for the next generation,” Aristorenas said.

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