By the end of 2015, 90% of adolescents and young adults in Khanh Hoa Province are expected to have access to reproductive healthcare...
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| A contest on reproductive healthcare and family planning for adolescents. |
By the end of 2015, 90% of adolescents and young adults in Khanh Hoa Province are expected to have access to reproductive healthcare and family planning counseling.
This is one of important targets of a premarital checkup model, period 2012-2015, to ensure adolescents and young adults’ complete physical, mental and social well-being.
Despite efforts to prevent child marriage and provide reproductive healthcare for adolescents and young adults, some 82 million people get married before their 18th birthday, 15 million teenage girls give birth - both married and unmarried- and 4 million adolescent girls undergo abortion worldwide every year.
2010 statistics show that Vietnam is one of the nations with a high abortion rate, of which 20% is among adolescents.
Child marriage jeopardizes health and usually disrupts their education. Early childbearing is linked to obstetric fistula. Teenage mothers are more likely to have children with low birth weight.
There are 138,000 people aged from 10 to 24, accounting for 30% of the population of Khanh Hoa Province. 4,000-6,000 young adults get married every year without comprehensive knowledge of reproductive healthcare and family planning.
Over the past years, the local authority at all levels has launched many programs and intervention projects on reproductive healthcare, including premarital checkup and medical counseling for this age group nationwide.
Khanh Hoa Province has benefited from the reproductive healthcare model launched in Khanh Hoa in 2011. With the cost of over 4.5 billion VND, the model for the period 2012-2015 will be implemented in many ways through clubs, dialogues, contests, counseling, etc.
Ho Thi Thi, Chief of the Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Population & Family Planning says the model is very vital for reaching common goals to ensure adolescent girls and boys' access to appropriate reproductive healthcare and provide life skills and counseling so that adolescents are aware of their rights and know about available services, contributing to the national effort to increase the population quality.
Nhu Thao
