Youth: Changing Attitudes, Improving Lives

This article describes a reproductive health education project which has served over 140,000
Ecuadorian youth.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the local organisation Fundacion Esquel have worked together to
provide reproductive health services and
counselling in an effort to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted
infections (STIs). In the town of Zamora, described in this article, the author states that the programme has been successful in reducing teen pregnancy to the point that no teenage girls had become pregnant in the two years
prior to writing. There were also no reported cases of STIs or HIV.



The programme was instituted with the cooperation of local government and educational authorities and, according to the author,
involved the following components:

• Introducing reproductive health education into the town’s secondary schools;
• Setting up a youth centre in the town hall;
• Introducing youth friendly reproductive health services in the local clinic; and
• Providing special training to teachers on sexual and reproductive health issues.

The article describes a participatory process, where teachers have freedom to develop some
of their own materials based on the programme's basic guidelines. Youth also gain leadership and advocacy skills through participation
in the programme.



Although the programme ended in 2004, the author states that the results have been sustained and local councils and
non-governmental organisations are funding continuation of many activities. UNFPA is also continuing "to support the creation of local youth centres and work to strengthen youth
movements throughout the country."