KOICA partners with World Vision to address teenage pregnancy

 

Teenage pregnancy has been a longstanding concern that many countries face to this day. I remember when I was younger, my parents highlighted especially for me being the only daughter the complications of getting pregnant at a very young age. The taboos, consequences and also what I will miss if I do things a young person should never do. I was blessed to be able to take part in a little get together along with other members of the media to know more about the study that was created with World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

In ASEAN member states, the Philippines has one of the highest adolescent birth rates where according to 2019 World Bank data, the country has 55 births annually per 1,000 women aged 15-24 have already begun childbearing, according to a 2021 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study.

Being pregnant as a teenager puts these girls at higher risks of health complications such as eclampsia, preterm birth leading to low birth weight for their babies, pregnancy-induced hypertension, gestational diabetes mellitus, systemic infections, and other severe neonatal conditions. I will be honest, I have friends that got pregnant at 16, one of them actually had gestational diabetes at 17.

Seeing the urgency to protect the health of young mothers and infants, the Korea

International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), in partnership with World Vision, is

implementing the KOICA Maternal Newborn and Child Health Project (KOICA MNCH) in

Eastern Visayas.

The project will cover 16 municipalities in the provinces of Leyte, Eastern Samar,

Samar, and Northern Samar. The project aligns with the Philippines National

Development Plan and KOICA’s National Cooperation Strategy. The project also aims

to ensure the healthy lives of mothers and their infants or children to reduce maternal

mortality. To achieve maternal and child health at grassroots levels, a Regional Policy

Forum focusing on teenage pregnancy will be held on September 6, 2023 at Summit

Hotel, Tacloban City.

Themed Advancing Multi-Sectoral Policies to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy Cases in

Eastern Visayas Region, the forum will bring together regional national and government

agencies, local government units, international non-governmental organizations, and

relevant stakeholders to discuss the pressing issues concerning teenage pregnancy

including current outlook in the Eastern Visayas region, and identify the underlying

causes and impacts on individuals and communities.

Being able to know the statistics and also the causes of these is definitely something that needs to be addressed so that more teenagers will be able to know and learn from this.

The forum hopes to implement teenage pregnancy programs with the cooperation and

participation of national and local agencies, civil society organizations, and non-

government organizations for better policy development and decision-making processes

to ensure the inclusivity and relevance of the strategies.

“We’re looking forward to a very productive teenage pregnancy forum. Through this

significant gathering, we hope to really delve deep into this very important matter so that

we can better protect young women and children today and always,” said KOICA project

director Jihwan Jeon.

Meanwhile, World Vision’s Executive Director Rommel V. Fuerte said “World Vision is

grateful to KOICA and their effort to help secure a better future for the most vulnerable

Filipino children. We pray that initiatives like the Regional Policy Forum can bring to light

solutions to effectively address teenage pregnancy in Eastern Visayas, and eventually

in the whole country.”

The Maternal Newborn and Child Health Project is one of KOICA’s initiatives that highlight their mission and vision of contributing to common prosperity and the promotion of world peace by implementing programs that address issues on health, education, climate action, gender equality, human rights, peace, and many more. Aligned with its values and objectives is World Vision, a global humanitarian organization devoted to improving the lives of the vulnerable sectors of society especially impoverished children, their families and their communities.

For more updates, visit https://www.worldvision.org.ph and follow World Vision

Philippines’ official social media pages: @worldvisionph on Facebook and Twitter, and @worldvisionphl on Instagram.