Campaign against Teenage Birth – CITY OF NAGA

Naga seeks to end teen births

CEPPIO Naga — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 08:00:54 +0000

ALONGSIDE faith-based approaches that aim to stop teenage pregnancies, the City Government of Naga continues to initiate measures to zero in on factors that cause children to engage in early initiation of sexual activity.

The latest of such initiatives is the city’s enactment of the ordinance that seeks to institutionalize and harmonize all its programs and services on Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH).

The AYSRH Ordinance, according to Mayor Nelson Legacion, arms the LGU to intensify the city government’s campaign against adolescent pregnancy and birth and help spare adolescent girls from getting pregnant to better prepare themselves for the years ahead.

The City Population and Nutrition Office (CPNO) said that the city mayor is advocating for zero teenage pregnancy in three years under the guidance of The Challenge Initiative (TCI), a program that aims to accelerate the reduction of teenage pregnancies.

Church-based, FP approaches

The LGU’s campaign is getting a strong backing from its volunteer-partner, the National Auxiliary Chaplaincy Philippines (NACPHIL) here by way of conducting in the communities’ values-formation seminars to the young ones and their parents.

“There’s really a need to constantly remind every family about the value of being God-fearing and God-loving and inculcate in them the good values in life like self-respect, trustworthiness, integrity, perseverance and self-care,” said Steven Gianan, Pastor at the Metro Naga Bible Community Church and the Regional Director of the NACPHIL.

TCI aims to stop teenage pregnancies in the country by establishing adolescent-friendly health facilities that promote positive health-seeking behavior and improve access to family planning programs.

A CPNO data said that the city’s adolescent birth rate has continuously dropped for the last 4 years from 30.21 in 2019 to 20.10 in 2022. An upward trend, however, in repeat pregnancies was noticed among the teenage moms that went from 39 cases in 2020 to 56 in 2021, and 62 in 2022.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte declared in August 2019 that teenage pregnancy is a national social emergency. According to the 2017 report of the Philippine Statistics Authority, an average of 538 babies are born to Filipino teenage mothers daily. At 5.99 percent, the Philippines has the second highest teen pregnancy in Southeast Asia based on Save the Children’s Global Childhood Report in 2019.

Among the mandate of the ordinance is the creation of AYSRH Council that will function as the advisory, planning, and policy-making body of the LGU to ensure the full implementation of the ordinance, and the delivery of a comprehensive culture-sensitive, appropriate, and age-and-development sex education in school and communities.

The ordinance also guarantees the provision of adequate funding to all AYSRH programs and services and mandates to strengthen the capability of the barangay health workers, nutrition scholars, and other frontline health and social workers in extending care and education that will suit to the needs of their adolescent/youth clients.

In pursuing its AYSRH services, the city government has increased its budget from P728,000 in 2020 to over a million pesos in 2022 when it joined the TCI. The budget expanded to P4.1-M in 2023.

Adolescent-friendly nooks

The ordinance also required the establishment of teen hubs in all public schools and teen centers in the city’s 27 barangays so that out-of-school youths and school-based adolescents will be provided with exclusive schedule in availing reproductive health services with ease and privacy.

The CPNO said that there are teen centers or adolescent-friendly facilities already established in the barangays of Concepcion Pequeña, Balatas, and Calauag.

City Councilor Gayle Abonal-Gomez, the author of the ordinance, said that teen centers and teen hubs will be capacitated that it can be able to help address the fear of stigmatization among the youth clients.

Stigmatization is the action of describing or regarding someone or something as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval. It may also refer to the action or process of marking someone with stigmata. Stigmatization may lead to ostracism, marginalization, discrimination, and abuse.

The councilor expressed hopes that privately-owned schools will also have their own teen hubs sooner and will be able to strengthen their research on AYSRH to help further improve the LGU’s programs.

Aside from encouraging the participation of the young ones, the ordinance underscores the role of parents in teenage pregnancy prevention as it also pushes for the institutionalization of a program that will educate the parents about the matter and encourage their active involvement.

She said that they are closely monitoring the rise in repeat pregnancies among teenage mothers from which they see the big role that other member of the family, especially the parents, should perform.

Expanding the network

The CPNO said that another major component of the ordinance is the establishment of the information service delivery network that will harmonize all existing services and program interventions on AYSRH.

Under the ordinance, the CPNO will occupy the frontline in the gathering and linking up of various stakeholders involved in extending AYSRH services to organize a referral system and provide health services based on the specific needs of the adolescent-clients.

“Before, when this ordinance has not yet been enacted, we were already providing AYSRH services thru several linkages along with a number of partners from public and private sectors. We only lack one thing at that time, we have to harmonize and institutionalized our efforts,” she said.

The councilor expressed optimism that by way of the ordinance, the city government along with other stakeholders, will be able to unify all its actions and be able to grow its networks and effectively implement its programs, she said.

(Jason B. Neola, CEPPIO)

Naga City passes AYSRH ordinance to win campaign vs teenage births

CEPPIO Naga — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 06:30:27 +0000

From setting up teen hubs and centers in every public school and village to the creation of a council that will drive all programs for adolescents, Naga City is taking bolder yet wiser steps to curb teenage births through a newly passed ordinance.

Known as the “AYSRH Ordinance,” the measure was enacted last month, a critical move that would finally institutionalize and bring harmony to the city’s wide-ranging adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health programs and services.

“The ordinance is like an arm or an instrument for us to be able to achieve our purpose, which is for adolescent girls to avoid being pregnant and for them to better prepare themselves for the years ahead because this lay down the acts that we have to do,” said Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion.

Naga City’s adolescent birth rate has continuously dropped for the last four years, from a high of 30.21 in 2019 to 20.10 in 2022. But it has observed an uptick in repeat pregnancy in teenage mothers from a low 39 in 2020 to 56 in 2021 and 62 last year.

The mayor is pushing for zero teenage pregnancy in three years as it works under the guidance of The Challenge Initiative (TCI), a program co-managed by the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) with the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health.

Launched in 2020, the program aims to stem teenage pregnancies in the country by improving access to family planning programs and promoting positive health-seeking behavior among youth and adolescents.

Road to ‘zero’

Legacion expressed confidence that the “ambitious target” was doable with an ordinance that will strengthen the city leadership team and its information service delivery network (ISDN), composed of various stakeholders that will journey with the city government to achieve such dream, and with the continued support of TCI and ZFF.

Among the many things the ordinance would set in motion are the creation of the City Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH) Council, which will act as the advisory, planning, and policy-making body for the full implementation of the law, and the provision of a comprehensive culture-sensitive, age- and development-appropriate sex education in schools and the communities.

The law also obliges the city government to provide sufficient funding annually for all its AYSRH programs and services and to strengthen the capability of barangay health workers, nutrition scholars, and other frontline health and social workers in providing care and education tailored to the needs of adolescents and the youth.

Since joining the TCI, the city gradually increased its investments in ASYRH services from Php728,000 in 2020 to over P1 million in 2022, the start of the program implementation. It quadrupled to P4.1 million in 2023.

Adolescent-friendly spaces in all schools and villages

The ordinance also mandates the establishment of teen hubs in all public schools and teen centers in the barangays that will give adolescents and out-of-school youths an exclusive schedule to avail of reproductive health services with confidence and privacy.

So far, teen centers or adolescent-friendly facilities have been created in Barangays Concepcion Pequeña, Balatas, and Calauag.

“Part of the services we ask from teen centers and teen hubs is to address the stigmatization because it is one of the reasons why there is poor health-seeking behavior among our teenagers,” said Councilor Gayle Abonal-Gomez, author of the ordinance.

She also said the city was looking forward to getting private schools on board to set up their own teen hubs and mining data from its body of research on ASYRH to further improve the local government’s programs.

Underscoring the importance of the role of parents in teenage pregnancy prevention, the ordinance shall also see the implementation of a family support program that will provide parents of adolescents with the necessary education and support that encourage parental involvement.

“We are closely monitoring the rise in repeat pregnancies among teenage mothers…and based on observations and with our dealings with the barangays, the role of the family and parents plays a big part in this,” she said.

Widening of networks and programs

Another major component of the ordinance is the formal establishment of ISDN that will “harmonize all existing services and program interventions” on ASYRH in the city.

Under the newly enacted law, the City Population and Nutrition Office will spearhead gathering and linking up various stakeholders involved in the provision of ASRYH services to form a referral system and provide health services tailor-fit to the specific needs of adolescents.

“Before this ordinance, we already have many public and private partners and linkages, there are many programs and services [on ASYRH] available in the city. But the concern was that efforts were not institutionalized and harmonized,” said Abonal-Gomez.

“One advantage of this ordinance is that it will unify all our actions and with everyone officially on board, we will be able to grow our networks and the programs itself,” she added.