DEVELOPMENT REPORT
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July 1, 2002: Reproductive Health Report
28 Jun 2002, 21:24 UTC
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
A new report has been released about sexual and reproductive health education for young people around the
world. Population Action International carried out the study. This not-for-profit organization is based in New
York City.
Researchers examined how seven countries dealt with the reproductive health needs
of their young people. The countries are Mexico, Iran, India, Ghana, Mali, the
Netherlands and the United States.
The study found that, except for the Netherlands, most countries are not doing
enough to teach young people the information they need about reproductive health.
For example, there are a growing number of reproductive health programs in Mali.
Yet seventy percent of the nineteen-year-old women in Mali are pregnant or have a
child. Twenty percent of the women are married by age fifteen.
In Mexico, the government supports a program of sex education and family planning. However, teachers receive
little or no training on the subject. Some do not teach the subject at all.
Amy Coen is the head of Population Action International. She says the need for reproductive health policies
around the world has never been greater. The group estimates that half of the world’s population is younger
than twenty-five. That is three-thousand-million young people. Within the next fifteen years, all of them will
have reached reproductive age.
Population Action International says that countries will suffer if they fail to provide boys and girls with the
information they need to stay healthy and in school. It says young people need to know about sexuality, family
planning and having babies. It says young people also should have the ability to prevent disease and unwanted
pregnancies.
In many countries, talking about sex and reproduction is considered wrong or against tradition. The group reports
a strong resistance among parents, teachers and policy makers to discuss issues of sexuality with young people. It
says this lack of openness is putting young people at risk. Young people have a high risk of diseases spread by
sexual activity, including AIDS. Half of all new infections of the AIDS virus are among people younger than
twenty-five.
Population Action International says countries that avoid open communication about this subject harm their
populations.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.
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