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| EMPOWERING PARENTS ON ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY AND REPRODUCTIVE |
Based on a study, the youth perceived that their parents constantly
provide affection and care to them, however, an even bigger number
of these youth significantly perceive their parents as not giving
attention to their adolescent concerns. In one of the Adolescent Reproductive
Health (ARH) Workshops of FAD, nine out of ten youth indicated that
they would rather learn about sex and sexuality from their parents
than from schools or their peers. This gave birth to the project entitled
Empowering Parents on Adolescent Health and Sexuality.
The project "Empowering Parents on Adolescent Health and Sexuality"
aims to pilot test the use of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA)
as an institutional mechanism to reach out and educate the parents
on what to expect during the period of adolescence, teen sexuality
and health issues and the significance of parent-child relationship.
It is a response to the expressed need of adolescents that they want
their parents to be the primary source of information about growing
up, relationship, sexuality and other teen concerns.
The project is being implemented in partnership with 2 public schools
and 2 private schools. The public schools are Philippine Normal University
and Mariano Marcos Memorial High School, and the private schools are
Philippine Women's University and Arellano University. These schools
passed the selection criteria set by the project.
Upon identification of partner schools, the project staff formally
tied up with the selected partner schools. Part of the project is
to review the existing facilitator's guide and pre-test it among parents
of the selected partner schools. FAD was not in the finalization of
the review of the old Facilitator's Guide in Parenting the Adolescents.
FAD made the Facilitator's Guide aligned with the needs of parents
who come from different walks of life and socio-economic status and
enhanced by the inclusion of learnings and experiences during the
conduct of the parenting sessions in the 4 partner schools.
"Magulang at Anak…Magkaibigan," is the tagline for the parenting sessions
that empowers parents on adolescent health and sexuality. Using the
FAD Facilitators Guide in Parenting the Adolescents, the parents were
given guidelines for communicating with their teeners on topics such
as boy-girl relationships, pre-marital sex, substance abuse, STD/HIV/AIDS,
condom use, teen pregnancy and options to unplanned pregnancy, solo
parenting, divorce and separation, homosexuality, abuse: incest and
sexual harassment.
To date, a total of 729 parents from 4 partner schools have attended
the parenting sessions.
This August, the project will hold a training for select parents groomed
as possible resource speakers. The use of parents as resource persons
is the sustainability mechanism for making adolescent health and sexuality
a priority concern of the PTA and the school.
The project is being implemented through the financial assistance
of the Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD). |
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