Program aims to decrease teen pregnancy

Throughout the world international organizations have launched programs to assist in reducing the number of teenage pregnancies. Partners of the Americas which link Latin American and Caribbean countries with the United States has already begun the process of addressing the problem in Belize. Under the theme of “Thinking, Talking and Taking Actions,” Partners of the Americas held its regional workshop today with representatives from the United States and Central America.

Q: “What does a workshop like this do for people working with these young women?”

Abigail McKay, Member, Belize-Michigan Partners

“For us in Belize, it has been instrumental. We have been moving very slowly in the process of the project, doing it fairly quietly through the partnership, touching just on relevant people that we needed to work with.

The people who are here representing Belize, we have a number of agencies. It means that we can talk about it to a larger number of people and get other agencies, other N.G.O.s involved in the project.”

Mary Beth Hastings, Partners of the Americas

“We are working to develop projects and proposals and just solid solutions to the problem of teen pregnancy. I think it’s really important to have the direct participation of youth in the formation of the project, not just as the beneficiaries of the project but as really directly involved in the planning. And we had some students here this morning from different parts of Belize and they were helping us with what messages would be most effective and what kinds of avenues we could use to reach them.”

Besides trying to reduce teenage pregnancy, the “Thinking, Talking, Taking Action” Project will create awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection.