Engaging Young People in Family Planning

To engage young people in family planning requires thought. When hormones are running high and the transition from child to adult is taking place many young people are looking for someone to love and to love them. They are entering a world without understanding the rules if they have not been given the tools necessary to deal with it. How this is done depends on whereabouts in the world you are trying to achieve this. Levels of education vary and local culture has a powerful control on what children can be taught.

The education of girls and women invariably improves the lot of any community. This happens because females share knowledge, invest in their families and teach their children. Knowledge is power and when the girls and women understand how to practice family planning they will use it. Sometimes this necessary information must be cleared by the village elders before the young women can be approached.

In the past, when people lived in the country, sex and reproduction was understood because it was freely demonstrated by the animals they kept. In the modern world when most families have no contact with agriculture this is more difficult. Early teaching, at an appropriate level for the age and development of the child, can counter this. Simple things like the physical differences between boys and girls and an openness about the human body and it's functions is a way to start. Some children in the West grow up so protected they have no idea about the other gender. Boys do not learn about periods and girls do not realize how strong the sex drive is with most males. All of these details are important elements in teaching young people about reproduction and it's prevention.

Many young men do not consider the implications of their sexual actions because of the power of the reproductive drive. To approach them with this subject, an appeal to their selfishness might work. When they recognize the need for condoms, and protective sex to avoid AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases they will have a better idea of protecting themselves. Also replacing the myths that many young men grow up with, because they get their information from friends rather than someone who knows, is important. The South African myth that sex with a virgin cures AIDS is one.