YOUNG PEOPLE WANT SEX EDUCATION, FAMILY PLANNING AND LESS PRESSURE TO MARRY EARLY AND HAVE CHILDREN

Press Release
POP/624

YOUNG PEOPLE WANT SEX EDUCATION, FAMILY PLANNING AND LESS PRESSURE TO MARRY EARLY AND HAVE CHILDREN

NEW YORK, 18 October (UNFPA) -- Young people the world over say they need accurate information on sex, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, want access to family planning, and want to marry and have children later in life.

Those were among the views expressed in an essay contest for young people sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on the theme "promoting responsible reproductive behaviour". They also said they want their parent's help in all those matters but they do not want to be pressured or controlled by them. Instead, they said they want to have support and guidance as they make their transition to adulthood.

The UNFPA organized the contest as an opportunity to give voice to young people and to assist the Fund in its work with youth, especially in the areas of sex education and information. The essay contest was as part of the momentum for the World Youth Forum, to be held in Vienna on 25 November.

"We want to listen to young people", said O.J. Sikes, Chief of UNFPA's Education, Communications and Youth Branch. "We need to know their dreams, fears and concerns. To be effective, policies and programmes that seek to meet their needs must be based on a proper understanding of their attitudes and behaviour. That is why we organized the essay contest." He added: "Young people the world over need accurate reproductive health information, and, where necessary, appropriate services, in order to exercise responsibility."

Collectively, the essays expressed a number of common points including:

-- A need for timely and specific sex education, which the essayists said was especially needed because of the prevalence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. A major health threat to youth, especially about sexually transmitted diseases, was a lack of accurate information, they said.

-- To combat the widespread problem of ignorance and incorrect information about sex from peers and even the media, many young people wrote

that they want their families, particularly their parents, to help. They expressed the hope that parents should be understanding and should not try to control them.

-- Young people who are sexually active wrote that they need family planning services in order to exercise responsibility. However, many young people also said they chose to abstain from sexual relations until they were ready, psychologically and physiologically.

-- A demand for gender equality and equity, from both female and male contestants, particularly in education and employment, was pronounced. Many of the young women essayists said they were concerned about poor girls being forced into prostitution.

-- Opposition to early marriages and early child-bearing, was described as severely limiting to young people's options in life. Many African contestants were vigorously against some traditional practices they considered harmful such as female genital mutilation.

-- A call for greater male involvement in family affairs, including family planning, was voiced by many young women contestants and echoed by many male contestants as well.

-- Young men were as much victims of societal pressures as their female counterparts, participants stated. They wrote that young men were as pressured by elders as young women in decision-making on such vital issues such as when to get married and when and how often to have children.

Mr. Sikes said that in reviewing the essays, the UNFPA also identified several recurring points made by the writers:

-- Parents were the preferred source of information on sexuality, but they could not always be expected to do the job well because they had never been taught how to help their children with those issues. The contestants said that programmes should be designed to help parents educate their children, as a complement to school programmes.

-- The writers called for community support, including that of religious leaders, for school programmes that teach children, those attending school as well as those out of school, about reproductive health. Those programmes should be based on the premise that ignorance was a root cause of irresponsible, risky behaviour. The charge that sexual knowledge leads to early experimentation was unfounded, youths said.

-- Alcohol was often involved in early sexual experimentation, first intercourse and unplanned pregnancy, many essayist wrote.

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-- Accurate information about reproductive health and sexual education was more difficult to obtain for the many children who were not in school, had no parents, or were in households where parents abuse them.

There were 17 winners of the essay contest, ages 14 to 23, chosen by UNFPA judges from a field of more than 500 entries from 107 countries. They will receive travel fellowships to the World Youth Forum next month.

More than 300 representatives of young people's non-governmental organizations are expected to attend the Forum. Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky is scheduled to open the Forum which will feature discussions on how non-governmental organizations can best work with the United Nations to implement the World Programme of Action for Youth, which was adopted by the General Assembly last December. The first World Youth Forum was held in 1991 also in Vienna.

In conjunction with UNFPA, many youth and youth-related non-governmental organizations also helped organize the essay contest. Other large organizations such as national chapters of the World Young Women's Christian Association, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and the World Organization of the Scout Movement participated in the contest. Medical students and young Rotarians were also involved in organizing the contest. In addition, there were numerous entries from religious groups, arranged through the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

Many countries, such as India, organized nationwide contests. South Africa alone had 3,000 entries. The contest in El Salvador became a community event, with participation of not only the young people, but also their parents, teachers and United Nations staff.

The winners -- with age and country -- were the following: Quan Zhou, 18, of China; Moshera Sad Al-deenf, 18, of Egypt; Mahmoud Zidan, 19, of Egypt; Carolina Ruiz Herrera, 18, Guatemala; Melisa Johnson, 14, Jamaica; Elmira Gilmudinova, 17, Kazakstan; Samson Mulyanga, 20, Kenya; Nadia Blaja, 16, Republic of Moldova; M. Altantulga, 23, Mongolia; Lahnassi Aicha, 20, Morocco; Hari Ghimire, 20, Nepal; Monica A. Gutierrez Gomez, 16, Peru; Alonzo M. Laqui, 20, Philippines; Siyanda Macanda, 18, South Africa; Stakim Suleiman Aboud, 16, United Republic of Tanzania; Nour Rim, 15, Tunisia; Jean Marie Nsambu, 23, Uganda; and Mwinpe Kamanga Julie-Jamal, 19, Zaire.

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