Centers contribute to decline in teen pregnancy in Antique

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique -- The establishment of teen centers in the province of Antique is a big factor in the continuous decline in teenage pregnancy since 2016.

Primo C. Ogatis Jr, Antique Provincial Population Officer, said in an interview Friday that while in the teen centers, secondary students tend to spend more time reading and watching television about Adolescent Health and Youth Development Program (AHYDP) and engaging in board games.

“We have trained peer counselors at the teen centers who help other students become more aware of the AHYDP, which addresses teenage pregnancy, protection

from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), school dropouts, and their other psychosocial pressures,” Ogatis said.

He said that in 2016, Antique registered the highest teen pregnancy rate in Western Visayas with 1,619 teenagers.

“The highest age bracket then was 15 to 19 years old teenagers who are supposedly still in school, with mostly having no means of living,” he said.

Ogatis said the sad outcome of teenage pregnancy has prompted the provincial government, through the Population Office, to establish more school-based teen centers and train more student peer counselors who could help their school guidance counselors promote the AHYDP.

“Our first two teen centers were established at the University of Antique main campus in Sibalom and at the Antique National School in San Jose de Buenavista,” he said.

Ogatis said they established the teen centers in these two most populous schools in 2002 with a budget of PHP150,000 each for the training of the peer counselors and equipment.

“The schools provided the classrooms that were converted into teen centers while the municipal government units provided funding to sustain the operation,” he said.

He said that the municipal government’s support to the teen centers was a challenge.

The 18 existing teen centers are located in 15 out of the total 18 towns in the province.

“There are two teen centers established in San Remigio, two in Laua-an, and three in Hamtic towns while the rest of the municipalities (except for Caluya, Valderrama, and Sebaste) have one teen center,” he said.

The local chief executives of the towns of Caluya, Valderrama, and Sebaste have already requested the provincial government to establish teen centers in their areas.

“The more that we have the teen centers established, the more youth could be reached out,” Ogatis said.

Following the establishment of teen centers, Ogatis said teenage pregnancy rates in the province declined to 1,427 in 2017 and to 1,339 in 2018.

“We target to have a further decrease in teenage pregnancy in the province this year,” Ogatis said

Meanwhile, 34 student-peer counselors from Grades 7, 8 and 9 will be trained on Level 3 where they will go out to communities and conduct the Adolescent Health classes among the youth.

“These 34 students already passed the Level 1 and 2 training sessions that were conducted during the months of September in the past two years,” he said.

Level 1 was an orientation on Peer Education on Adolescent Health and Development Program while Level 2 was on how to facilitate the AHYDP. They were trained by resource persons from the Population Commission 6 (Western Visayas) or from the Provincial Population Office.

The training for Level 3 will be held here on August 28-30. Upon completion of the training, they will become the province’s pool of trainers.