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Adolescent Health and Youth
Development |
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| Preface |
Adolescent Health and Youth Development
is a concern, which does not need justification. The youth
is the future. They are the hope of the nation.
Today, there are more young people than ever. Neglect of adolescents
can lead to problems both immediately and in the years ahead.
Indeed, the quality of our youth today will shape the quality
of our nation tomorrow.
The world today offers adolescents both remarkable opportunities
and serious risks to their health. More than ever before,
adolescents are able to attend school and benefit from technological
progress. Yet, adolescents of today are also more exposed
to a growing number of diverse threats , than any other generation
has been.
Earlier puberty and diminishing influence of family and traditional
institutions, are exacerbating the risks of early sexual involvement.
Potentially harmful substances - alcohol and other drugs are
now more readily available to adolescents and threaten their
health, both in the short and long term. Violence inflicted
by the young and on the young is a growing phenomenon. Sexually
Transmitted Infections (STI) is also on the increase among
the young. Many more have become victims of trafficking, hazardous
environments, exploitation and sexual violence.
Parents, caregivers and youth development workers are faced
with the daunting challenge of helping adolescents anticipate
and cope with the myriad changes happening to them. They also
have to prepare them to confront the threats and risks that
they encounter in their passage to adulthood.
Adolescents need to develop competencies for adaptive and
positive behavior, so as to be able to deal effectively with
the demands and challenges of this transition stage. They
also need to acquire skills which will help them to chart
their course and navigate their passage in this diverse and
changing world.
Adolescence is a gateway to the promotion of healthy lifestyles
and positive personal attributes. Many of the attitudes and
behavioral patterns acquired during adolescence (such as gender
relations, sexual conduct, the use of tobacco, alcohol and
other drugs, life habits and dealing with stress, pressure
and conflicts ) will last a lifetime.
The Sexually Healthy and Personally Effective (SHAPE) training
package is POPCOM's contribution to national efforts to create
an environment that will enable all young people to maximize
their potential. It is a part of a campaign to reach young
hearts and minds and help them develop capabilities to manage
their future and become responsible citizens of tomorrow.
It is a vehicle for woking with families, communities and
schools, in providing appropriate information and assistance
needed by adolescents for developing positive and responsible
lifestyle choices and behavious.
Admittedly, no institution can single-handedly promote adolescent
health and youth development concerns. Thus, there is a need
for synergy and collaboration among GO's, NGO's and LGUs.
The SHAPE training package is a vital tool as we move towards
our shared goal of ensuring that adolescents are able to acquire
the information, build the skills, obtain the services, and
live in a safe and supportive environment that they need for
their health and development.
You are most welcome to make full use of this training modules.
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Adolescent Reproductive Health
Adolescence: A Time For Answers
The central task of adolescence is to find
a workable answer to the question which has pre-occupied humankind
for many centuries and has been the subject of innumerable
poems, novel and autobiographies: "Who am I?".
The search for a sense of identity is most pronounced and
obvious during adolescence. During adolescent years, the young
person is confronted with a host of physical , physiological,
psychological, sexual and knowledge changes as well as new
and varied social, cognitive and intellectual demands. Adolescents
may at times feel like spectators observing their changing
selves or as one adolescent put it:
"Standing in front of the mirror
I'm wondering what that person is all about.
Odette de la Cruz, age 16."
This module is a labor of love for our own and all Filipino
adolescents seeking answer to the age-old question of "Who
am I?". It is a love-filled walking through with them
as they anxiously try to integrate the rapid changes of body
and mind into a gradually emerging sense of identity, uniquely
his/her own.
The walk through begins with the presentation of the inevitability
of change, both physically and personally and the accompanying
fears, worries and difficulties spawned by misinformation
and difficulties in adapting quickly to occuring changes.
The adolescent is expected to feel good about his / her body
and proud of him/herself after this phase.
The next stage of the walk through would bring in the drama
of physical; and psychological changes associated with sexual
maturation. Going through this would enable the traveling
teen and his/her companion to explore human sexuality, gender
and sexual orientation as he/she slowly realizes that man
is "also a sexual being".
Finding one's identity is facilitated in one's relationship
with others, which boy-girl relationship. The teen and his/her
chaperone is initiated to the thrills of first love and first
date, without covering the faces and pitfalls of love and
sounding the warning for datings. Yes, young man/lady, there
is love without sex.
Adolescent are not exempt from problems and the last stage
of the walk through is on how to get through threats and stress
confronting teens. Surviving this stage would make them better
equipped to face the world, as persons who knows who and they
are for. |
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