During a visit to the Women’s Centre Foundation of Jamaica on Tuesday June 25, Shantal, a 17 year old girl, currently enrolled in the Adolescent Mothers Programme, told the First Lady of Burkina Faso, Her Excellency, Chantal Compaoré of the emotional turmoil she experienced being pregnant during the teen years. “Becoming pregnant at this tender age was a terrifying experience. I did not know what to do when I found out. It would have been my final year in high school and I would have been doing my examinations, graduating and making my parents proud. I was so horrified, ashamed and devastated to see that all those things I wanted would not be happening,” she said.
Shantal was one of two girls who bravely shared her experience with the First Lady and her team who are in Jamaica to learn about the strategies that the government has employed over the years to address the problem of teen pregnancy. Shantal described the Womens’ Centre Foundation and the counselors who are caring for her during this difficult period as “firefighters who rescued me from the mental burning building I was in.”
She told the delegation that through the intervention of the Womens’ Centre she has completed her school leaving examinations (CSEC) and is now awaiting her results. “Thanks to the Women’s Centre, I have a second chance to make things right, to have an education and to make my parents proud again!” she declared.
Since 1978, the Women’s Centre of Jamaica’s Programme for Adolescent Mothers has been providing continuing education, counseling and skills training for girls 17 years and under who become pregnant while still in school. Over the years the programme has managed to keep the 2nd pregnancy rate of its students below 2%. It has also been very successful in the number of teen mothers who complete secondary education and the number of teen mothers who advance to tertiary level education.
Jamaica’s efforts at addressing teen pregnancy and in particular, providing support to young girls who become pregnant while in school is considered a best practice by many. The country’s teen pregnancy rates have fallen from a high of 31 % of total births in in 1978 to 18% in 2008; and in September 2013 the government will implement the policy for the mandatory reintegration of all school-aged mothers into the formal school system. The policy is intended to allow for the continuation of girls’ education during and after the birth of the child.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, through its Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean has been helping to spread the word about the value of the programme. In this regard, UNFPA has facilitated exchange visits by governments and organizations in Grenada, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. As a result, Grenada has established a model based on the Womens’ Centre of Jamaica Foundation.
This visit by the First Lady of Burkina Faso is the latest Mission that UNFPA has facilitated and the first outside of the Caribbean region. During a courtesy call on Senator the Hon. Sandrea Falconer, Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Information on Tuesday June 24, Madame Compaoré , through a translator said it was her hope that after leaving Jamaica, Burkina Faso would become the leader in West Africa in preventing adolescent pregnancies and supporting adolescent mothers.
Minister Falconer, for her part, expressed delight that the First Lady had chosen Jamaica as a model and conveyed Jamaica’s willingness to offer any assistance needed as that African country seeks to address the problem of teen pregnancy.
Reed more:-
http://www.caribbean360.com/news/jamaica_news/803483.html#axzz2XWPp6OFs
http://www.headlinegrabber.org/Regional/Burkina-Faso-News/
http://www.readyforanythingnow.com/UpdatedAlertPage.php?Action=Burkina+news&Title=Latest%20News%20from%20Burkina
http://www.antiguaobserver.com/jamaica-to-help-african-state-deal-with-teenage-pregnancy/
