| De: |
charity gamboa [ Profil ] |
| Sujet: |
Re: [ICPD15Youth] Questions for week three
|
| Envoyé: |
Oct 2nd, 2008 - 22:53:54 |
|
| |
Hi all...it's great to hear different ideas from everyone here. Here are my answers to week 3 questions:
QUESTIONS FOR WEEK THREE
1. Do you know of efforts among young people to coordinate their efforts on and
participation in promoting family planning, reproductive health, addressing
sexually transmitted disease and gender equality?
Here in the Philippines, most of these efforts are actually coordinated by religious-affiliated
organizations or government-subsidized organizations. These religious-affiliated organizations
and government-subsidized organizations, who collaborate with other NGO's, work under the
outreach programs of various sub-groups like the Rotary and certain foundations.
I know of a Women's Center in my local city who take up these issues but these are
not youth-oriented in some aspect. There are youth clubs and organizations within the
smaller communities but most of these youth clubs work on issues on drug addiction, and
setting up of sports activities to divert the "pushing" of drugs and make kids go back
to school. Besides, most youth-oriented causes are always referred to the Department of
Social Welfare and Development.
2. In your experience, what conditions have led to the best opportunities for
young people to actively participate in activities which seek to promote family
planning, reproductive health, and gender equality and address sexually
transmitted disease? What have been the greatest barriers?
I am not aware of actual conditions that have led to actual youth participation but
I can cite some instances wherein participation can be gathered.
[a] educate youth participants and volunteers first on the said issues prior to
promoting - as it is best to have that sense of knowing what you are talking about in
the first place. Let me add that I have the privilege of hearing Pope John Paul II said that
the youth are (Toronto World Youth Day) "the salt of the Earth and the Light of the World.." This should be relevant as
we want the youth to participate as much as possible;
[b] Several Philippine civil societies have been pushing for the Reproductive Health Bill
that would allow the teaching of sex education in the classrooms as early as grade school.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has opposed this. It's like saying to
educate them about sex will make people dig deeper into that. But sex education in early
stages can teach people about family planning and responsible parenthood. There have been
rampant increase of teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases among the young
people of today. If we make them aware of this as early as possible, the youth might be inclined
to be less ignorant of the issues we are now working on;
[c] Social outreach programs that are included in a school's curriculum would be one way
to insert these issues and educate the students early - a child can be developed into a WHOLISTIC
person who will be equipped with skills and knowledge to be socially-conscious that can lead
the child to be responsible for their own actions. All these issues that we are talking about is
about social responsibility - something that most young people do not even know the meaning of.
I think that we who stand to be "leaders" in our own right should set the conditions for other
young people to follow suit. By this, we can set the conditions, give them something to work
on. I think there is a need to dig deeper.
3. How have the perspectives and opinions of young people been perceived among
public and private institutions designing and implementing development
programmes, with particular attention to those on family planning, reproductive
health, sexually transmitted disease and gender equality?
Politics is dirty and and it happens in almost every sector. The civil society in many developing
countries are considered oppositional, the same with youth activisim.Many NGOs are established
by these so-called politicians and they hamper the developmental process. Meaningful processes
are no longer a priority but rather their own political agenda should be forwarded. I am not saying
all organizations have lost that vision but it seems that if the youth were to involve themselves in
these development processes, it might just be overshadowed by politics. I think this is a reality
nowadays. Getting perspectives and opinions are healthy for the sanity of society, but I did
wonder sometimes about the difficulty of these processes being forwarded to the right channels
when politics will play a significant role all the time. Politics seem to be everywhere. I think
the key here is making the right step and making the right decision in choosing people who
can represent us meaningfully in our own legislative houses. Here in the Philippines we have
the party-list sytem wherein civil society groups, including youth-oriented groups, can be voted
to sit on Congress. We can somehow point our finger in that direction.
Plus, let me add that there are different situations in each country but the point here all the time
is to ask ourselves if it also happens to other places. We simply need to work towards goals that
are best applicable to our own situations.
Thanks
Regards,
Charity G
Associate - Diplo Foundation
[CharityG (at) diplomacy.edu]
-------------------------------------------
* Powered By TIG Groups http://groups.takingitglobal.org/
* Group Archives: http://groups.takingitglobal.org/ICPD15Youth/messages/
* To unsubscribe, email ICPD15Youth-unsubscribe (at) groups.takingitglobal.org
* My subscription settings, ICPD15Youth-settings (at) groups.takingitglobal.org
|
|
Message
Retour aux messages 
