Pregnancy at the age of 18 years and younger is considered high risk. Pregnancy at those young ages comes with three times the risk of maternal death and twice the risk of neonatal death as opposed to that for older age groups. Early adolescents often don’t have access to reproductive health services provided in the mainstream public health sector. An Economic and Social Council Commission of the 47-nation-member United Nations reports that early (adolescent ages 10-14 years old) pregnancy is increasing, mostly from consensual relationships, estimated at 7 infants per day.
Quality prenatal care in the Philippines has been a challenge particularly in urban poor areas because of the cost. The Rotary Club of Vancouver Mountainview made a modest contribution of US$100 to the US$41,443 project to enable it – sponsored by the Rotary Club of Las Pinas in District 3030 and by other clubs and Districts in the Philippines -- to apply for a Rotary Global Grant. Then Mountainview Rotary committed to donating $1,000 every year to Las Piñas Rotary to expand this project to other areas in need of this service in the Philippines.
The Reducing the Risk & Preventing Teenage Pregnancy project aims to support local health and social service agencies in delaying early sexual debut and early pregnancy among adolescents. In turn the project also aims to reduce the risk to mother and child by providing accessible, safe and quality prenatal care to teenage pregnant mothers.
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The Rotary Global Grant is contributing to these projects:
- Adolescent Health Clinic, with ultrasound equipment, where pregnant adolescents can get the proper prenatal evaluation and care needed to reduce risk for the mother and child;
- seminars/workshops among adolescent youth to create awareness and responsibility on sexual and reproductive health; include “train the trainers/facilitators" sessions to develop a pool of trainers/facilitators for future awareness and education;
- produce a previously designed “conversation map” and pilot test it in the seminar/workshops, among communications for providing awareness and education, including age appropriate video/digital materials to make future campaigns more dynamic and successful.
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