From May 2021 to April 2022, ADRA took on the difficult challenge of trying curb the early (teenage) pregnancy rate that was on a continued rise in the province of Camarines Sur. 

Through the 12-month PROTECT Project funded by USAID through RTI International, ADRA aimed to curb the rising rate of early teenage pregnancies in the municipalities of Buhi, Ocampo, and Baao, Camarines Sur by educating parents and teens about responsible reproductive health and at the same time empower women and the community by advocating for zero tolerance of gender-based violence. 

Reflect Sessions were held in the different barangays for participants ages 19-49 to tackle the topics of gender based-violence, sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), family planning, and safe motherhood. Two (2) home visitations by trained Community Health Volunteers were also organized for these participants to 1) ensure that the reproductive health topics were properly absorbed during the reflect sessions; 2) discuss those topics with the teens present in the household so that they would also be aware and responsible when it comes to pre-marital sex. 

The project also held a weekly radio program on Bicol FM 105.5 about Family Matters called “Usapang Pampamilya” and also used “Aramon ni Nene” Facebook Page as an online platform for concerned teens to ask questions about their reproductive health. Facebook Live Events were also used to reach more young people on the topics of 1) Gender and Health Development and 2) Family Planning vs Te

enage Pregnancy. 

A quote from former US. President Franklin D. Roosevelt says.

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future” 

The 12-months that ADRA’s PROTECT Project spent transferring precious knowledge to teens and young parents in the municipalities of Buhi, Ocampo, and Baao, Camarines Sur may or may not have been enough to change their current situations, but it is our hope and prayer that we have empowered them enough to transform their futures. 

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There are 2 ADRA projects that are ending this May: the Stronger Together Plus Project, our 8-month COVID-19 Response project in Matanao, Davao del Sur, and the EMPOWER Project, a 36-month Disaster Risk Response project in Itogon, Benguet. Both projects held their “Lessons Learned Workshops” this week where our ADRA Project teams met and listened to the representatives from different project stakeholders as they share what was done WELL and what could have been done better in the Projects’ implementation.