The We Decide programme in Peru educates women and girls about their sexual health and rights to help prevent teen pregnancy. In the region where Natsumi lives, the rate of teenage pregnancies is one of the highest in the country. Here's how she wants to change this and Beat The Clock:
1. Learn about her sexual and reproductive rights.
2. Share that information with other teens
3. Advocate for adolescent-friendly health services.
Teenage pregnancy is another issue Natsumi often talks and hears about, because in the jungle region of Peru where she lives, the teen-pregnancy rate is among the highest in the country; one in five girls in Loreto is pregnant.
“People see children suffering, but few people do something about it,” she says. “I’m happy to be one of those people who want to generate a change. And it’s not just me. A lot of young people want to make a change in our society. We can all help someone else.”
Natsumi candidly admits that hearing about the problems teenagers in her community face shocks her. “I could have been one of them, but I had another kind of education,” she says. That education came, in part, from her participation in a programme where she learnt about her sexual and reproductive health and rights. She also developed the skills to converse candidly with her peers about contraception; safe, equal, caring and consensual relationships; and cultural expectations around masculinity. She also regularly advocates for teens with community leaders.
“When I talk with other teens, I hope they will share that information with even more teenagers,” she says.
Natsumi became a peer-to-peer educator through her training in Plan International’s ‘We Decide: Reducing Adolescent Pregnancy in Loreto, Peru’ project.
based on a survey of 860 adolescents (50:50 women-to-men ratio):
