by Romar Miranda

March 25, 2022, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan—Roots of Health (ROH), a non-profit organization based in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, in partnership with the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, recently launched its new Tagalog-language website. This is one of the nonprofit’s efforts to expand its reach, providing more women, young people and other stakeholders with accessible reproductive health information, available online anywhere in the Philippines.

While a lot of information about sexual and reproductive health is available online, most resources are in English. Through a new Tagalog-language website, ugatngkalusugan.org, women, young people, parents, teachers, health workers, and local legislators can access an alternative form of education and source of information in a language that is more accessible to Filipinos. 

This repository of articles, guides, quizzes, and videos is an integral aspect of ROH’s continued efforts in providing essential reproductive health materials and services across Palawan and the rest of the Philippines. 

Stakeholders can also get answers to the most frequently asked questions about contraception, pregnancy, menstruation, and breastfeeding, and other reproductive health concerns, through a chatbot to be hosted on the website and eventually on the Ugat ng Kalusugan RH Clinic Facebook page. Women and young people seeking reproductive health services may also book an appointment through the chatbot.

Colin Townson, Head of Political Affairs of the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines, during the website launch on December 10, 2021, said that making information more broadly available can help address social stigmas, increase awareness, appreciation of differences, and confront myths and biases, which can contribute to a more inclusive, more tolerant and safe society for all Filipinos.

“We applaud the launch of Roots of Health’s Tagalog language website and chatbot which will provide improved access to essential information about reproductive health, sexuality and gender, and sexually transmitted infections. This platform comes from a critical time, as we all continue to struggle with the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Use of digital platforms, such as this one, can help ensure that Filipinos are able to access information, seek guidance, and make informed decisions to safeguard their health,” said Townson.

Amina Evangelista Swanepoel, Roots of Health Executive Director, noted that there is an urgent need for useful and helpful tools to bridge the gap that has resulted in a rising number of teenage pregnancies and HIV cases, by providing access to comprehensive sexuality education and access to high-quality, nonjudgmental, free clinical services to the youth, parents, teachers, healthcare workers, and other reproductive health allies.

The website and social media campaign, which includes six primary themes including safe sex; avoiding early unplanned pregnancy; benefits of contraception (with a focus on young people accessing services); consent; reproductive health myths and facts; and HIV prevention were converted from the organization’s existing lesson plans to electronic standalone materials by using local and simplified language, making it familiar and accessible to local audience.

A list of clinical services that can be accessed in Puerto Princesa is also available on the website, as well as education services, which include training for various stakeholder groups such as youth, community-based screeners for HIV (CBS), and teachers.

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About Roots of Health

Ugat ng Kalusugan (Roots of Health), founded in 2009, works to empower women, young people and families in Palawan, Philippines to lead healthy reproductive lives by providing rights- and results-based educational and clinical services. The organization improves women’s and young people’s reproductive health and decreases the number of unplanned pregnancies and HIV incidence by providing sexuality health education and access to modern contraceptives through a clinical services program. 

Ugat ng Kalusugan is accredited by the Department of Health (DOH), the Commission on Population (POPCOM), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Provincial Government of Palawan, and the City of Puerto Princesa. The organization has Memorandum of Agreements with the Department of Education, Palawan State University and Western Philippines University.

About the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI)

The CFLI is a program designed to support small-scale, high-impact projects in developing countries, which align with Global Affairs Canada’s thematic priority areas for engagement. The program is directed at projects conceived and designed predominantly by local partners. Projects are selected and approved by the relevant Canadian embassy or high commission. The CFLI also serves to support positive bilateral relations between Canada and recipient countries and their civil societies, by deepening contacts and supporting local endeavours.

The post Roots of Health Launches New Tagalog-Language Online Website and Chatbot for Reproductive Health Solutions appeared first on Roots Of Health.

That’s why we recently launched our new Ugat ng Kalusugan YouTube channel. In this channel, young people can watch short videos in Tagalog about sexual and reproductive health. By providing them with information they need in a language that is easier to understand, we can empower young people  them avoid unplanned early pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. We converted our age-appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education curriculum into videos that we will be releasing in the weeks and months to come, starting with and “Introduction to Contraceptives and Condoms” and “All About IUDs.”

The production of these videos were made possible by the support of the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).

As it’s much easier to keep young people engaged through multimedia content that is not only informative, but also entertaining, we also produced animated videos on sexual health topics such as “Why the Withdrawal Method Doesn’t Work” and “Being LGBT is not an Illness.”

The post Check Out Our New YouTube Channel! appeared first on Roots Of Health.

Schools are still closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, and young people are still unable to be on their campuses to learn and interact with their teachers and classmates. Because of this, our teachers are also unable to provide in-person reproductive health classes by hopping in a van, taking a boat ride, or even climbing uphill.

But this doesn’t mean that students don’t need this information anymore. COVID-19 has made young people even more vulnerable to health risks such as teen pregnancy and HIV–all the more reason to keep them informed and empowered.

Millennials and GenZ comprise 92% of the digital viewing audience. Why not be where they are? Why not be the kind of teachers they want us to be?

This is why we started pivoting our work online. Our social media pages have become our virtual classrooms while our posts became our lesson plans. We have also been holding online classes and webinars in real time via Zoom.

Thanks to the support of the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, young people can soon learn about reproductive health matters such as pregnancy, birth control, HIV, gender and sexuality, and more, in a more engaging and entertaining format.

That’s because we started producing bite-sized videos of our modules starring our educators. Young people can watch these videos during online classes, or even as they scroll through social media.

Stars in the Making

Our teachers—Connie, Bobby, and Ivann—are celebrities in their own right. Armed with a green screen and lights in a rented studio, it took them only nine hours to finish 11 short videos. These three rock stars needed no teleprompter because they had memorized their scripts and they know these topics by heart. 

Of course, it didn’t go without a few slip-ups, but what fun is a shoot without a blooper reel of mispronounced words or getting cross-eyed from staring at the camera? The day was tiring, but we got great laughs, too.

Being in the studio with the video production team was also a great diversion from working at home or the office. We all appreciated the day we spent together, looking back at better days when our teachers were still interacting with students in person. 

Videos are Good Teachers

I used to work in TV production, so I’ve always believed that education should include multimedia content such as videos. With the uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, online learning is here to stay.

And what better way to teach and learn sexual and reproductive health than through informative and entertaining educational videos? 

Short, easy-to-digest videos are more effective for information processing and memory recall, especially for young people. Millennials and GenZ comprise 92% of the digital viewing audience. Why not be where they are? Why not be the kind of teachers they want us to be?

With young people always online, we’re lucky to have this great opportunity to create informational videos that can be shared easily at all hours of the day and night. This is an opportunity we didn’t want to miss. 

Through engaging and entertaining videos on sexual health, young people can stay informed and empowered to take charge of their health and futures. Here’s a sneak peek of one of the videos Roots of Health is producing with a local studio.

The convenience and the versatility of digital videos are assets not only to our clients but to our educators as well. Videos enhance our modules and lectures, so our educators have the flexibility to pause or rewind the videos to discuss or review specific areas.

It is also extremely helpful in opening up class time, as teachers no longer have to sit and talk in front of a webcam for hours on end. Since videos create a more appealing experience to the students, they can be more engaged and more likely to retain new information. 

As we adapt to this new normal, we hope that through this project we will be able to facilitate remote learning more efficiently and effectively, educate a far greater audience about sexual and reproductive health, and provide a go-to resource for learning materials that can be accessed anytime and anywhere. 

The post From Schools to Studios: Sex Education in the New Normal appeared first on Roots Of Health.

Thanks to our supporters, we managed to continue providing all this in 2020, and more. Here’s a quick recap of what we couldn’t have done without our passionate supporters who donated and advocated for reproductive health rights.

SERVICES

We knew that COVID-19 lockdowns would contribute to mistimed and unwanted pregnancies. That’s why we worked hard to provide contraceptives to women and girls all over Palawan.

Unfortunately, we had to shut down our clinics for 3 weeks. We had to pause providing prenatal screenings to reduce health risks for our clinical staff.

But many women and young people were still able to access birth control, despite restrictions on their movements. Our clinical staff traveled to remote areas for women and girls who could not make it to our clinics. As soon as we were allowed to reopen our clinics, we installed safety measures and put an appointment system in place, in order to minimize COVID-19 risks to our clients and clinical staff. During the latter part of the year, pregnant women were again able to access prenatal care, as we resumed providing this service in our main clinic.

Last year, we started providing HIV screening in our clinics. Unfortunately, due to COVID disruptions, we had to rely more on our community-based screeners this year, especially for young people unable to travel to our clinics.

Roots of Health nurse Piety administers a birth control shot to a client. With this contraceptive, women won’t have to worry about unplanned pregnancies for up to three months.

In 2020, we were able to:

• Provide 18,383 women and girls with their contraceptive of choice, ensuring that they do not have an unplanned pregnancy;
• Support over 75 pregnant women and girls; and
• Provide 2,859 prenatal checkups and free prenatal vitamins:
• Screen 189 clients for HIV

Make 2021 safer for women.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Many young people still have a lot to learn about sexual health. Before COVID-19, we traveled to different schools all over Palawan, including far-flung islands and remote municipalities. We taught classes about puberty, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and other sexual health concerns.

As schools have been closed since March, we’ve been unable to conduct in-person education sessions for large groups. We’ve gone online with information sharing and consultations, so women and young people can still access information on pregnancy, contraceptives, HIV and other sexual health issues.

We converted existing materials into bite-sized social media posts that are easily readable and comprehensible for online audiences. Through different Facebook groups for various stakeholders, such as parents, young people, health workers, and teachers, we were able to deliver information on sexual and reproductive health to the people who needed them.

This year, we were able to:

• Reach a total of 3.6 million social media users with information on reproductive health;
• Deliver information to 1,713 people in Facebook groups;
• Answer 12,577 questions about reproductive health received on our clinic pages.

Make 2021 safer for young people.

SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING

We continued to support our government counterparts with the creation of local legislation that supports reproductive health services and education. Despite the mobility restrictions due to COVID-19, health centers did not have to worry about contraceptive stockouts, thanks to the logistical support we provided, especially when lockdowns began.

We contributed personal protective equipment for health care workers in Puerto Princesa. Frontliners and persons under quarantine for COVID-19 were also given free contraceptives and HIV screening.

Community Health Advocates practice with each other, as they learn how to take a client’s vital signs.

Large gatherings were not allowed, so we had to scale down our training sessions with different stakeholders and trained them in much smaller groups instead. This year, we trained a total of 408 reproductive health allies, including youth council members, community health workers, service providers, nurses and midwives. We focused the sessions on how to make their services more youth-friendly, and how to continue providing reproductive health services during the pandemic.

Make 2021 safer for Filipinos.

Despite all the uncertainties and crises we faced in 2020, your support made this all possible. Thank you for continuing to believe in us.

We are excited to continue our important, life-saving work to make the coming year safer for more Filipino women and young people, and we would appreciate your help. If you haven’t already, please consider donating to our #Safer2021 campaign. We’re excited to share that for the first time, we’re doing our year-end fundraiser on our own website. This means your entire donation will go to Roots of Health, without third-party fees.

We’d love your help in raising $10,000 before the year ends!

Donate until December 31, and your donation will qualify as tax deductible for the year 2020, either in the United States or the Philippines.

You may make an online donation here, or contact us if you’d like to make a donation through other channels.

The post Year-End Recap: You Saved 2020! appeared first on Roots Of Health.

by Alicia di Giovanni | Photo: Isabel Corthier

When 16-year-old Tina’s* water broke, it was the last thing the ninth grader expected to happen in her high school campus, just a few miles away from the city center. She had thought that she was only seven months pregnant. Because she’d never had an ultrasound, she had no idea that she had been pregnant for nine months already and that the baby was due.

Every two and a half minutes, a teenage girl like Tina gives birth in the Philippines. That’s 24 babies born to teen mothers in an hour, or 566 in a day—one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world.

As young girls lack access to education on sex and pregnancy, they are left in the dark, not knowing how to protect themselves from major life changes that they aren’t ready for. And, like in the case of Tina, early unplanned pregnancy can disrupt their education and put their own health at risk.

“As far as she knew, she was only seven months pregnant.”

Like Tina, teenagers in Palawan don’t receive enough sexual education. In fact, teenagers have little to no information on the health services available for young expecting mothers. Having a child at a young age can affect both your health and your baby’s too (Papri et al., 2016). This is an important area of concern as Tina is among hundreds of thousands of teenage girls in the Philippines who get pregnant every year. In fact, one out of every ten Filipino women between 15 and 19 years old is already a mother (Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey, 2013).

Help young people access high quality reproductive health care.

The age of consent in the Philippines is 12 years old. This, combined with the lack of education, makes the high number of early unplanned pregnancies in the Philippines not very surprising. Unfortunately, the number continues to grow. Palawan, meanwhile, has one of the highest teen pregnancy numbers among all provinces in the country.

Early unplanned pregnancy is harmful to one’s health. It is associated with an increased risk of maternal complications during pregnancy and delivery. Teenagers need to be aware of these risks so that they can try to avoid it altogether through contraception. Or, if they are already pregnant, they should access prenatal care throughout the pregnancy.

Health Risks for the Mother

Regular checkups are incredibly important during a pregnancy to monitor a mother’s and fetus’ health. Women who don’t seek medical care, are at higher risk of health problems and birth complications. This is exacerbated in teenage pregnancies. Girls younger than fifteen are more likely to develop anemia, or low blood iron, along with pregnancy-related high blood pressure (Jeha et al., 2015). 

Low blood iron is more common for girls between the ages of 15 and 19 compared to women who are 20 to 44 (Jeha et al., 2015). This is because teenagers are less likely to receive the recommended healthy caloric intake required during pregnancy. It is important to receive qualified prenatal care to make sure your baby has the right amount of nutrients to prevent iron deficiencies.

Another risk for mothers during early unplanned pregnancies is high blood pressure, which can cause early delivery or low birth weight. This is not safe for mother and child and must be monitored closely by a health care professional. 

Health Risks for the Baby

Low birth weight in newborns is common among young mothers. PHOTO BY SHEEN CUBILAN

Early pregnancy also increases health risks for newborns. Babies born to mothers under 20 years old face a higher risk of:

• low birth weight, 
• early delivery and 
• future health complications (Combs-Orme, 1993).

With the lack of early and regular prenatal care, these risks can be harmful to a baby, and can lead to death.

Help more moms raise healthy babies.

Low Birth Weight: Low birth weight in newborns is common among young mothers. Low birth weight can affect a child’s learning ability. Some may develop infections or other illnesses. Nearly ten percent of teenage mothers will deliver a low-birth weight baby. Babies born with a low-birth weight are then twenty times more likely to die in their first year of life, compared to babies of normal-weight (Kirchengast and Belizan, 2009).

Early Delivery (Premature Baby): A premature baby is one born before 36 weeks of pregnancy rather than 40 weeks. Premature babies miss out on the important growth and development that take place in the final weeks of pregnancy. Early unplanned pregnancies are more likely to result in premature birth. This is due to lack of nutrients and prenatal care necessary for the full 40-weeks of pregnancy (Khashan, Baker and Kenny, 2010).

Baby Health Complications: When organs don’t have enough time to develop, babies may suffer from health problems such as:

• breathing problems;
• developmental delay;
• hearing issues;
• vision issues;
• difficulties with feeding; and
• other health complications (Papri et al., 2016).

“As young girls lack access to education on sex and pregnancy, they are left in the dark, not knowing how to protect themselves from major life changes that they aren’t ready for”

Early unplanned pregnancies also affect mental health. As a young teenager, and without education on sex and pregnancy, it can be a scary experience to find out you’re pregnant. Young pregnant women have greater emotional and social needs compared to older ones. This is usually because young girls feel unprepared and unsure on what to expect. Young mothers are less likely to finish school, experience higher rates of depression after birth, live in poverty, and have children who experience developmental problems (Combs-Orme, 1993). 

Why don’t teenagers seek medical advice?

Many teens moms don’t access the health services available to them and don’t visit the doctor throughout the duration of their pregnancy. This is usually due to a combination of: 

• embarrassment or shame;
• no time;
• lack of education; 
• lack of money; and
• lack of awareness. 

Low health-seeking behavior is a major health risk, especially for early unplanned pregnancies. It increases the risk of pregnancy related complications and harms the unborn child (Neal, Channon and Chintsanya, 2018). It is important to have consistent health care to minimize these risks.

What can we do?

At our new youth-friendly clinic, our nurse Daisy explains how contraceptives work to a group of girls. PHOTO BY ISABEL CORTHIER

Early unplanned pregnancies require comprehensive prenatal care from the start to ensure a healthy baby. Risks of early unplanned pregnancies can be avoided altogether when teens have access to reproductive health information and services. 

This is why Roots of Health opened a youth clinic in the Puerto Princesa city center as a place to ask questions, seek support and access services. That’s why Roots of Health exists–to provide reproductive health services in Palawan, offering a place of support and knowledge. The team and professionals at Roots of Health ensure to encourage good prenatal care, while keeping in mind the developmental and personal needs of the teenagers. 

Roots of Health aims to ensure that all women are aware and have access to contraception to help prevent the number of unplanned pregnancies in Palawan. To support our health education programs to help young people prevent early unplanned pregnancies pregnancies, support our work here.

*Additional reporting by: Amie Perez

Sources:

Combs-Orme, T. (1993). Health Effects of Adolescent Pregnancy: Implications for Social Workers. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 74(6), pp.344-354.

Jeha, D., Usta, I., Ghulmiyyah, L. and Nassar, A. (2015). A review of the risks and consequences of adolescent pregnancy. Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, 8(1), pp.1-8.

Khashan, A., Baker, P. and Kenny, L. (2010). Preterm birth and reduced birthweight in first and second teenage pregnancies: a register-based cohort study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 10(1).

Kirchengast, S. and Belizan, J. (2009). Editorial: Teenage Pregnancies, a Current Global Health and Social Problem. Current Women’s Health Reviews, 5(1).

Natividad, J. (2013). Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines: Trends, Correlates and Data Sources. Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies, 28(1), pp.30-37.

Neal, S., Channon, A. and Chintsanya, J. (2018). The impact of young maternal age at birth on neonatal mortality: Evidence from 45 low and middle income countries. Plos One, 13(5), pp.5-32.

Papri, F., Khanam, Z., Ara, S. and Panna, M. (2016). Adolescent Pregnancy: Risk Factors, Outcome and Prevention. Chattagram Maa-O-Shishu Hospital Medical College Journal, 15(1), pp.53-56.

Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey 2013. (2013). Studies in Family Planning, 42(3), pp.227-232.

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Wrong information about birth control, family planning and sexual and reproductive health is all too common in the Philippines. With COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, more women and girls cannot get advice from a health care provider in person. Instead, they turn to social media.

That’s why our nurses and midwives have been hosting live Q&A sessions on our local Facebook page. Over 80,000 Filipinas follow us to ask their most burning questions.

So far, our clinical staff have answered thousands of questions through comments, messages and live sessions. From this, we learned that they actually want to use modern birth control. But they are either scared of side effects or don’t know how to use them properly.

Also, most online sources on birth control are in English. The language barrier makes information even more difficult to access and understand.

Lack of information can lead to serious problems. For instance, using birth control incorrectly is just as dangerous as not using them at all. User error is the number one cause of contraceptive failure. We can change this.

As more women and girls take charge of their health through a safe, non-judgmental online space, they can prevent unplanned pregnancies more easily. They can choose what form of birth control works best for them. They also avoid contraceptive failure due to user errors.

Plus, they can learn all of these from a licensed health care provider who speaks their language.

Knowledge empowers. This matters even more so during a health crisis, when misinformation is too costly.

Spread the word. For accurate, non-judgmental advice on sexual and reproductive health, follow Ugat ng Kalusugan RH Clinic on Facebook.

The post Sexual Health Education for Filipinas Goes Online appeared first on Roots Of Health.

The Philippines is a conservative country and most view sex and sexuality as something inappropriate to discuss. Thus, young people do not receive scientifically based sexuality education in schools, and do not receive any guidance or information from their parents. Young people report to Ugat ng Kalusugan that the only sexuality advice they receive from parents and/or teachers is being told not to have sex until marriage.

However, many young people do not wait until they are married to have sex. The 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS 4) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (DRDF) found that one in three Filipinos (33%) aged 15 to 24 years old has engaged in premarital sex. This percentage translates to roughly 6.2 million young people engaging in sex without knowing how to protect themselves. Our teen pregnancy rates clearly support these findings that many teens are sexually active. For many young people, abstinence until marriage is a choice and a commitment that they have made. But, for a variety of reasons, other young people have not made this commitment, or choose not to follow through. And because they have never had formal sexuality education, they do not know how to keep themselves safe from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections like HIV.

Here at Ugat ng Kalusugan, one of our goals is to help prevent teen pregnancy. We teach young people and we encourage them to delay sex until they are older. We help them to recognize that an unplanned pregnancy could derail their education and prevent them from achieving their goals and dreams. But, we do not ignore the fact that 33% of young people do engage in sex even if they say they won’t. And some of the young people we teach are already involved in sexual relationships. Therefore, we provide education to help correct misconceptions and prevent misinformation.

I’m pleased to report that after our intervention with the students I mentioned above, 89% knew that jumping up and down after sex does not prevent pregnancy. 94% of them knew that a girl can get pregnant even if it’s her first sexual encounter. 75% knew that withdrawal is not an effective form of contraception. 90% knew that condoms are an effective method to prevent pregnancy and STIs, and 89% knew that Filipinos are not safe from HIV. This knowledge is crucial to spread among other youth in our efforts to help prevent teen pregnancy and the continued spread of HIV.

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Roots of Health invited Margie Holmes to speak and facilitated the students’ curriculum creation as part of a celebration of their four-year anniversary as an NGO. The current status of the RH Law marks a pivotal time in reproductive health history for the Philippines, and for Roots of Health it marks the opening of a door to being able to offer more health information and access to services to the people of Palawan.

During the curriculum writing session, students were divided up into groups of ten, with the high school students grouped separately from the college students. Each group was given time to brainstorm and plan, then asked to present their ideas to the larger group. Each group highlighted one point that they thought was the most interesting or important aspect of their curriculum.

For the most part, the students came up with topics for discussion in their curricula that match the modules that Roots of Health already teaches; reproductive systems, STIs, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, healthy relationships, contraceptives, and puberty. The interesting, new ideas that they came up with, however, deal with some controversial and challenging moral issues.

Facilitating an understanding and tolerance of issues related to homosexuality and sexual orientation is challenging on a global scale, and here in the Philippines it is no different. The students made it very clear that this is something they want to address during sex education classes. During the writing process they asked many questions, such as, “What is the difference between being homosexual or just confused?” And “is there a cure for homosexuality?” They wanted to know if being gay is a decision that people make. Clearly, these questions are ones that these teenagers are commonly faced with, and they need guidance in answering them.

Another common interest in the groups of students was surrounding masturbation, which is attributed to a (global) culture of shame, and also impacts self-esteem. Masturbation, in most of the world, is not considered a natural expression of self-love, rather the urges to do it are considered dirty and abnormal. Addressing questions that these students have about it in sex education classes and giving them a space to discuss it could provide them with a chance to release some aspects of themselves that they may not even be aware of repressing.

A third theme that continually came up was the issue of how to deal with the contradiction between long-standing conservative views about sexuality in Philippine culture, and the more Westernized, liberal, scientifically health-based beliefs that students are presented with in our classes and in the media. Students want to learn how to manage different information and beliefs regarding sex and religion. Because the Philippines is predominantly Catholic, this is especially important to discuss because it is a prevalent moral dilemma for the kids growing up in this culture. However, it is also somewhat controversial for the Roots of Health teaching team to veer from their science-based curricula, to a more value-based discussion. It is difficult to address these issues in classrooms because there are so many people that could potentially be offended by different opinions.

As a visiting American in Palawan, I am struck by the complexities of teaching sex education. The lack of reproductive health knowledge and services here come from deeply-rooted cultural norms. The Roots of Health teachers are very intentional about how and what they teach, and they do a remarkably good job. Hopefully, through the Margie Holmes discussion and finding out what exactly the students want to learn, Roots of Health will be able to supply what the students demand, and address these complex moral issues as they come.

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What was the object of this exercise? The new Reproductive Health Law – once it is released from the Supreme Court – requires/expects schools to teach age appropriate reproductive health classes. ROH is already engaged in such teaching and has a lively, interactive curriculum. However, ROH teaching staff wanted to know if they were missing anything, so they created this opportunity to ask students to generate their own curricula, to tell the organization what they needed to know, to discuss, and to learn more about.

What kind of reproductive health curriculum do students want? What do they need to know?

They want to know, quite naturally, about sex and relationships. They want to know about how to prevent pregnancies (really they do, whether their elders want to admit this or not!). If there are no other alternatives – if no one will allow them to have condoms, or pills – they will continue to rely on the withdrawal method, which is not an effective form of contraception.

Many teenagers are really concerned about their own sexuality. Are their own feelings within the range of “normal”? Are they gay? Can they change that? SHOULD they change that? ROH has taught about LGBT issues along with general work on bullying and self-esteem, but had missed the fact that there is an information gap regarding sexuality. There are things students need – and want – to know about sexual orientation.

And students want reproductive health education to bring in a moral dimension – NOT to follow traditional moral or religious lines, but to bring these issues out into the open and discuss them. Is it okay to be gay? What do you do if you are gay but your personal belief is that this condition is sinful? What if your church teaches one thing and your own moral sense is different? All the old moral platitudes have to be confronted, questioned, considered – not necessarily thrown out but not necessarily honored either.

Dr. Margie knows all too well that these issues have to be considered – that students, and their elders, are troubled by them. If a student asks her why she doesn’t feel ‘sexy’, and whether there is something wrong with her, Margie doesn’t treat it as a joke, but looks her straight in the eye and says it is okay, there are different times for different stages, she can hold on and see.

And that’s part of what makes Dr. Margie so special!

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