Article by Garrett Kenyon.
Like many teen girls in the urban slums of the Dominican Republic, at 15, Mariana was sure she was ready to have a baby with her first boyfriend. Now that she's a bit older and wiser, Mariana is grateful for the Youth Health Corps meeting that convinced her not to rush things.
Instead of becoming a young mother and getting mired further in poverty, Mariana became a peer educator and spent her time alerting other teens to the serious consequences of teen pregnancy. "Thank God I enrolled!" she says. "I learned that you need good communication with your partner to have a positive foundation for a relationship. I learned how to take care of myself."
The links between poverty and teen pregnancy are well-documented. Experts have long known that increased teen pregnancy in poor regions is a byproduct of the lack of access these girls have to accurate health information, health care and education.
Less quantifiable is why girls from poor areas who do have access to those things still decide to have babies at higher rates. Recent studies indicate that this is less a conscious choice than a reaction to the bleak living conditions and lack of opportunity characterized by poverty.1 "The reality is that adolescent pregnancy is most often not the result of a deliberate choice, but rather the absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl's control," says Dr. Babtunde Osotimehin, Director of the United Nations Population Fund.2
Mariana (far right) credits CI with helping her decide to postpone starting a family.
The Youth Health Corps (YHC) addresses health issues like teen pregnancy by training youth to become peer educators who spread accurate health, nutrition and reproductive information to other youth in their communities. Each YHC group uses different techniques to achieve this, with campaigns tailored to the major health concerns facing youth in their countries.
In India, where child marriage is common, the YHC has campaigns to educate young girls and their parents about its dangers. In the Dominican Republic, where the teenage pregnancy rate is double the world average3(some sources put it as high as 25 percent4), the YHC combines education about reproductive health and women's rights with an electronic babies (e-babies) simulation program that emphasizes the challenges of caring for infants.
Mariana, who recently graduated from the program, credits the YHC with opening her eyes and changing her life. "I saw myself reflected in a girlfriend of mine who married at a young age and was abused by her husband," Mariana says. "I said to myself, 'No! Stop! When I'm old enough, I'm going to finish my schooling and get a job, and then I'll be able to make my own decisions.'"
Mariana believes the YHC helps youth become better-equipped to make positive health decisions. "They know more, and they can talk more about the subjects of pregnancies and STI prevention. They know the difference between AIDS and HIV."
"I learned that you need good communication with your partner to have a positive foundation for a relationship," says Mariana.
"We see the change in their behavior," says Juan Peralta, YHC facilitator in the Dominican Republic. "We see youth who decide to postpone a pregnancy or their first sexual relationship or protect themselves. That change in behavior, in attitudes and practices is seen throughout the whole training process."
For youth not swayed by information, the e-babies program drives home the point. "It teaches youth what it means to have a baby," Mariana says, "that it's not a game."
Being responsible for an electronic baby that cries and needs to be fed, changed and rocked to sleep for two days can be a rude awakening. Juan has a favorite anecdote about a stubborn girl who bragged about how easy having a baby would be, until an e-babies experience caused her to reconsider. The first night, the electronic baby woke her up several times needing to be fed, rocked and changed. When it began loudly crying in church the next morning and she was asked to step outside, she asked the facilitator if she could return the e-baby.
"That's just one of the cases we've seen," says Juan. "One of many."
Photos and reporting assistance by Erenia Mesa.
1 United Nations Population Fund, 2 The National Bureau of Economic Research, 3 Dominican Today, 4 United Nations Population Fund
Youth who join the Youth Health Corps to train as peer educators learn about a variety of topics. They attend a series of workshops and activities to learn more about personal issues, including:
