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| Rural villages like this one previously did not offer secondary classes, now the Ministry of Education is offering secondary classes in 10 of the 40 villages in my municipality. This has helped reduce the teenage pregnancy rate on a local scale. |
When I first got to my
site almost two years ago I learned about all of the health disparities and
challenges that my counterparts at the Ministry of Health are up against every
day. Just to name a few, there was a high rate of teenage pregnancy. Around 30%
of all pregnancies were to girls under the age of 18. Our casa materna (house for pregnant women to wait for their due date,
so that they can get to the health center on time to give birth) was fairly
new. It didn't have much to offer women ever since the NGO funding it had
pulled out. It was essentially just a bed and a sheet to sleep on, rice, oil
and 2 pots in the kitchen, a dirty bathroom and place to wash clothing by hand
out back.
