By Jocelyn P. Alvarez
ZAMBOANGA
CITY - The Commission Population (PopCom) enjoins everyone to observe World
Population Day (WPD) on July 11 and be one in helping shape and empower
adolescent girls as this year’s theme
focuses on them.
To amplify the call to action to
empower adolescent girls, PopCom has chosen for local observance this theme: “Work for a brighter future. Address Teen
Pregnancy NOW!”
Said theme is also anchored on the
international theme set by the United Nations Population Fund which goes
“Adolescent Pregnancy.”
PopCom Regional Director Reynaldo
Wong in his letter said millions of young girls face discrimination that
prevents them from exercising their reproductive health rights. “In the
Philippines, teenagers face pregnancy and childbearing before they are
physically, emotionally and socially mature enough to be mothers,” he said.
“Equipped with the right skills and
opportunities, teenage girls can invest in themselves now and later in their
families and communicates. Hence their rights, health, education and potential
must be safeguarded and assured in the development agenda of every nation,”
Wong in the same communication letter said.
According to the PopCom chief, the
country must invest in adolescent girls for their own sake, saying “educated
and healthy girls have the opportunity to reach full potentials as they are
more likely to delay childbearing, marry later, have healthier children and
earn higher incomes.”
“They can help uplift themselves and
their present and future families out of poverty and be a force for change in
their communities and generations to come,” he stressed.
Pregnancy complications are the
leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 15-19, killing thousands of
girls every year.
World Population Day in an annual
event, observed every July 11 each year, seeking to raise awareness on global
population issues.
The event was established by the
Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, inspired
by the public interest of five billion people. (PIA9)