Shopping malls in the Philippines are very popular hang out for
everybody, especially among adolescent and youth. Young people go to malls to
shop, watch movies, play video arcade games, jam at karaoke music bars and most
especially hang out with old friends and meet new acquaintances.
Such popularity of the shopping malls was seen as a window of
opportunity for intervention by the Remedios AIDS Foundation, Inc, a non stock,
non profit non government organization that aims to provide quality information
and direct services to vulnerable populations and communities. For purposes of
this talk, I will only focus on our youth initiative.
Access to services among the youth is a need that cannot be
overstressed. In the words of our national hero Dr Jose Rizal, the youth is the
hope of our Fatherland, the most resource of the future. Thus, all stops much be
pulled out to ensure that the youth are developed to assume leadership towards
the vision of tomorrow with capability and confidence.
Adolescents have special needs in the area of reproductive
health. They face pressures to engage in premature sexual activity and sexually
active adolescents are at high risk of getting HIV/AIDS STI. Typically they are
poorly informed about how to protect themselves. Reports from the Philippine
Obstetrical and Gynecological Society has documented an association of maternal
deaths rising trends among teenage mothers and the rising trend in terms of
teenage pregnancy and abortion cases. Likewise, children of teenage mothers are
more vulnerable to morbidity and mortality. Early childbearing blocks the
educational and economic status of young adolescents with limited life choices.
Low income adolescents with limited life choices are susceptible to pregnancy
and childbearing. Thus, this vicious cycle goes on.
Young adults (15 to 24) years old comprise about 18 percent of
the total population in the Philippines, an important segment of population
given their future participation in the nation's economy and political scene..
Raymundo et al in 1994 revealed that 18% of youth 15 to 24 years old had
premarital sex experience. This means that one of every four single adolescents
15 to 24 years has had premarital sex. Remedios Hotline reports from 1991 up to
the present, data revealed a higher count that is 20 to 40% of hotline callers
ages 12-19 years old, had their coital debut. While most of the girls did it the
first time with their boyfriends, many of the boys did it with persons with whom
they had no romantic affiliations usually a casual acquaintance or commercial
sex worker just to experience the so called "right of passage". Ironically,
unsupervised homes were the most popular venue for the first sex encounters
especially among the girls. Profile of male youths most likely to engage in
premarital sex indicates an urban residence, Catholic with Catholic school
education and middle/high level of education. Among the girls, the area of
residence or religious affiliation did not seem to matter, although religiosity
and a high level of education were important factors that discourage premarital
sex.
Raymundo noted that Filipino society has well-established,
strict rules and norms regulating sexual behavior among the young. However, sex
is such an uncomfortable topic that most parents avoid discussing with their
children. The result is that young adult learn about sex from experimentation
and from often misguided knowledge of their peers.
Ujano-Batangan in 1997 has the following recommendations from
her summary of research findings on adolescent sexuality in the Philippines,
among which are:
A The provision of appropriate venues where adolescents can
discuss their perceptions, attitudes and concepts of sex and sexuality; where
they can be encouraged to talk openly about these issues, and where they can be
helped to develop the capacity to decide on sex-related issues and develop
sex-positive attitudes;
B the provision of educational and counseling programs for the
youth to address the specific interests, needs, issues and characteristics of
adolescents based on gender, age, socio-economic status , etc., and
C the education of older adults especially parents, teachers,
doctors etc on handling the questions and issues of adolescent sexuality.
Meanwhile in terms of service delivery in RH, UNFPA noes the
following lessons learned from its Fourth Country Program covering
1994-1997:
A There is a need to further incorporate gender and social
perspective in the quality of care framework of RH, including approaches for
serving target beneficiaries other than married women to include single women
and adolescents, and
B There is a need for Department of Health retained hospitals
and selected national institutions specializing in RH to be more closely linked
vertically with the community-based service delivery network as well as
horizontally with whole spectrum of RH services available in these
facilities.
Indeed there is still lack of coherent and clear policies and
programs for adolescents. The Health Department has developed an adolescent
health framework setting clear parameters and standards in operationalizing the
said ARH framework. This hopefully will be translated into a more dynamic and
better positioning of the requirements of the adolescent health programme and in
attracting more participation and involvement among service providers.
With these in mind the need to provide access to adolescent
sexual health service is a must. Availability of such facility will let Filipino
youth know their risks in order for them to make behavioral modifications in
life. Various youth programs have been in place in the Philippines for the past
years and are often times branded as "traditional" or adult-driven youth
programs. The lessons gained by Remedios from these initiatives have been noted
to ensure that the project will be efficient in its service delivery towards
achieving its sustainability. Thus, Remedios gave birth to the YOUTH ZONE.
THE YOUTHZONE is an innovative project that utilizes shopping
mall center as the nerve center for youth to engage in learning adolescent
sexual health issues. This is as a result of lack of access to service
high-risk, low-income adolescent within the community. Youth zone offers both
information and direct services relating to youth needs. YZ offers quality
services assured to be given in a "non-judgemental" and non-discriminatory"
fashion.
In developing and promoting the YZ project, the following are
the important steps undertaken:
A Training of core staff and youth facilitators
B Participatory project development and planning
C Networking with the community and local govt units, private sector
D Development of a youth-friendly program
E Community outreach and mobilization
TRAINING OF THE CORE STAFF AND FACILITATORS
Initially staff members assigned at YZ attended various
seminars on ARH, sexuality and HIV/AIDS/STI counseling. Study tour visits were
conducted to various youth centers like those of the Foundation for Adolescent
Development (FAD), Cebu Youth Center (CYC) and Baguio Center for Young Adults
(BCYA). Learnings gained by the staff on how these pioneer centers operate and
how program's pressing concerns were addressed by these organizations. Indeed,
this has helped in molding the operational plan of YZ. Moving on further to the
project, development workshops on various adolescent health issues will be built
in with the project.
PARTICIPATORY PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
YZ is a project "for the youth, by the youth and made by the
youth." RAF has conducted series of focus group discussions (FGDS), needs
assessment analysis to help in the design the center, what services/programs
needs to be rendered and what kind of promotional materials to be used.
Continuous consultation with target clients is being done by YZ staff to
constantly address the dynamic health needs among the youth. Later on youth
clients will be also part of the operational research component of the project.
This will help improve service delivery among our youth clients.
NETWORKING
YZ has threee levels of networking: private sector, local
government and the community. RAF is supported by the Tutuban Properties
management, who has allowed a space within the shopping mall area and who has
believed with the cause of the project. Although previous undertaking has gain
the support of Tutuban to do some cost sharing of its operations in the past (
approximately USD 8,000). Still, there is a need to strengthen
partnership/collaboration with Tutuban's new management to continuously gain the
support of YZ it has cherished. Furthermore, YZ needs to involve other store
owners to support YZ programs for its activities. Support may either be
non-monetary.
YZ has also sought the cooperation of officials of nearby
schools and communities in identifying potential participants in advocacy for
and peer education seminars. It has a wide range of networking with various
youth organizations to mention a few are Sangguniang Kabataan of Tondo and the
National Youth Commission. Community mobilization is considered the heart of YZ
undertakings.
DEVELOPMENT OF A YOUTH FRIENDLY CENTER
YZ was inagurated in 16 April 1999, after two years of its
existence, a total of over 6,000 clients has received various services offered
by YZ. Majority of the clients were basically coming from age group 14-19 years
of age ( 65%) among which 60% are males while 40% are females. Various
activities participated in by clients were as follows : film showings followed
by small group discussions, group dynamics, art therapies ,story telling
sessions, peer to peer support, youth resource center, and youth peer
facilitators workshops.
PEER TO PEER APPROACH
Youth Zone (YZ) uses the peer to peer approach as a strategy in
conveying adolescent health issues. This peer approach model has been proven
successful in changing one's personal behavior. Youth peer facilitators helped
YZ in promoting and augmenting YZ service delivery to other youth from the
shopping mall and at the community level. To date, 10 youth facilitators/year
were trained every year to render support services to YZ. The training module
talks not only of adolescent health issues but life skills such as being
assertive, self-esteem/confidence, leadership and the essence of teamwork.
These are basic skills that will make young adults equip later on with their
lives when faced in risky situations. Development workshops as follow through
activity on various adolescent health concerns were likewise conducted to
sustain youth peers interest and to further mold them to become responsible
adults.
#youthzone CHATROOM
One of the highlights of the YZ project, is its integration of
information communication technology (ICT) as a strategy in promoting ARH. Thus
this gives to the birth of an online chatroom discussion on ARH issues called
#YOUTHZONE.
The channel is registered under the Undernet server with
#youthzone as its chatroom name. It is operated by Channel managers adept in
providing ARH counseling services to youth chatters. On line discussions are
held daily from 1:00 - 6:00 pm to discuss ARH issues by chatters. Popular topics
discussed were as follows :Boy girl relationships, parent child relationships,
current events, dating and crushes, gimmicks, fad music and dances, popular
Movie idols, self esteem, friendship ,premarital sex, teenage marriage,
virginity, sex and sexuality, homosexuality/lesbianism and more…
Topics were known to be diverse but indeed this reflects the
minds of the youth as it affects the total well being. It is not always right to
get straight to the agenda, project planners should look at various innovative
ways on how to integrate current youth's concerns in relation to adolescent
reproductive health. And this is what YZ is doing.
The channel has helped YZ to draw out guidelines in terms of
project intervention. It has also helped our counselors learn more of their
mentality and learn from our clients- the youth. Indeed, this is highly
interactive and has gained much appreciation among our client chatters. Lastly,
it has always reassured our youth clients of anonymity and confidentiality of
topics being discussed.
The Channel manager and its operators has set chatroom
guidelines for chatters using the #youthzone chatroom. To date there over 3,000
counseling sessions were conducted by the chatroom on ARH issues for the year of
operation. On the average, about 10-15 chatters/day have participated in these
chatroom discussions. Should specific health needs were required by the clients,
appropriate referral services to Kalusugan@com clinic and other
RAFs partner agencies were provided to ensure completion of services being
delivered among its clients.
KALUSUGAN@COM
After one year, Kalusugan@com clinic (which means HEALTH in the community clinic) has
opened to provide clinical health services primarily targeting the youth. YZ has
promoted K@C as a family welfare clinic to counteract attacks made by conservative groups. This strategy
was adopted to broaden the scope of services, and thus attract larger clientele.
It also assures youth clients that services are adolescent friendly for them to
avail of. Current client load of K@C is 70 /month. Medical concerns of clients are diverse but surely,
obstetrical and gynecological medical services rank among the most frequently
availed medical service. Should a youth be in need of contraceptives or condoms
they are available at the clinic tailored to the needs of youth clients.
Counseling is an integral part of clinic services delivery and this is one
feature that helps client to decide from the options being presented. The clinic
has also its diagnostic and laboratory facility as back up to the medical
services being provided. This has ensured clients to have a one stop shop of all
medical services needed. Much is yet to be done to increase clients load
belonging to age group 15-24 years of age. Specific strategies are being
undertaken to address this need. In promoting adolescent reproductive health.
YZ is already on its two and a half years of operation and it
has served to a total of over 5,000 youth on various RH services. Indeed, much
is yet to unfold within the next years as it proved to deliver a variety of
innovative IEC intervention for the Filipino youth.
The following are the learnings gained from the project:
- Better understanding and appreciation of RH especially ARH. Staff members
were send to various capability building initiatives by the Foundation to make
them better equip in their roles and responsibilities. Project staff has been
molded in time to learn more on Filipino adolescent sexuality through the
experiential process. Other forthcoming initiative of the YZ project is the
operational research component and project staff and youth facilitators will
be involved in the process. This is identified as an important tool in shaping
YZ for its future project directions.
- YZ as nerve center of all ARH advocacy activities in the Tondo area.
Because of active community participation, YZ has successfully expanded its
reach beyond the confines of the shopping mall. Participation of community
influential, teachers and parents will be the next targets of YZ project as it
makes its move to demonstrate the sense of ownership of the project. Teachers
and guidance counselors from nearby schools have been visiting YZ and has
refer students to YZ Resource Center. Enhancing the trust and commitment of
significant stakeholders is important in demonstrating the sense of ownership
of the project.
- Demonstration of reaching other youth in difficult situations. Through its
alternative and innovative counseling service, the #youthzone chatroom, has
reached other youth outside the community in need of counseling concerns as
with regards to various adolescent health issues. The chatroom has offered a
"breathing space" for youth clients to ask questions directly. Anonymity and
confidentiality is at all times reassured during sessions.
- Youth volunteer/client time is limited by studies. YZ peer educators can
spend their volunteer work depending on their availability. Usually in-school
youth facilitators had difficulty adjusting with their study time schedules.
Indeed, this proves how difficult it is to mobilize youth because of diverse
priorities and concerns.
- Constant dialogue with Tutuban Management on YZ project developments is a
must. This is an important component of the project in order to brief the mall
owners of its initiatives. Learnings gained from this initiative has helped
strengthen the partnership of Remedios and the private sector. This also
uplift Tutuban center's image as a private sector supporting for social cause.
- YZ project can be replicated. Since YZ modeling an intervention at the
shopping mall, it is imperative that all activities to be documented so that
recommendations are reviewed and made. Basically, YZ model of intervention is
applicable to clients who are urban based youth. Careful needs assessment has
be to highly considered once again a replication site is taken into
consideration in order to demonstrate its applicability among its youth
clients.
- Sustainability of the project beyond funding support. Inasmuch as funding
support will be for an additional of three years it is imperative for YZ to
look also on various ways on how YZ can be sustained. User fee mechanisms has
been installed on services like internet use, medical/clinic/laboratory
services, but still there is a need to constantly review on strategies being
conducted. Financial analysis of the project has to be done on its operations
vis-à-vis revenues being generated so that it will demonstrate cost
effectiveness later on.
It is hoped that with YZ being a pilot project proved to be
effective and worth replicating for in other urban centers areas of the
Philippines. Definitely, YZ breaks all paradigms in terms of health information
strategies. It has modeled information technology as a strategy in conveying
adolescent health concerns. With YOUTHZONE experience, channels have been open
to reach more Filipino youth. Demonstration of YZ innovative and accessibility
has attracted more youth to avail ARH services. Hopefully, more Filipino youth
are empowered to exercise their adolescent rights in the near future.
This is what the YOUTHZONE is all about!
