LAHORE, Nov 23: As only 29 per cent of the girls and 41 per cent boys in Pakistan know about the physical changes they experience in puberty and about hygiene issues, non-government organisation (NGO) LifeLine plans an awareness campaign to raise awareness among the youth across the country about reproductive health issues and rights.
LifeLine’s representative Omer Aftab told reporters at a local hotel on Friday the lack of reliable information was resulting in lack of confidence in them. In order to raise awareness on these issues, the Lifeline will launch a mass awareness and advocacy campaign on reproductive health rights through the mass media, community theatres and concerts.
The NGO has incorporated religious references regarding adulthood issues and rights into the campaign.
Mr Aftab said that Islam stressed on teaching adulthood issues to people through Quran and Sunnah.
He said Maulana Raghib Husain Naeemi, head of Jamia Naeemia, had also stressed the importance of right guidance for adolescents.
“The lack of proper guidance can land the children in wrong company and bad habits,” he quoted the maulana as having said.
He lamented the fact that no serious effort had been made to sensitize 100 million youth on emotional, psychological and health aspects.
He said even several parents did not want to answer the questions by their children about psychological and physiological issues.
The project, HAYYAT, also aims at educating parents and teachers and motivating them to discuss these issues with their children and students.
He said the absence of proper information and guidance may lead the children to self-deduced and half-baked facts.
“Our religion does not forbid us from discussing or imparting guidance to the children on these sensitive issues,” said he.
The growing age introduces hyperactivity of hormones that results into emotional ups and downs for youth and as a result they may face multifaceted adjustment problems in society.
Mr Omer Aftab said even most couples were ignorant of the importance of birth-spacing and that only four per cent of married girls of 15 to 19 years use contraceptives and only 11 per cent of the women used the same in the age group of 20 to 24 years.
“Islam encourages mothers to breast feed their children for at least 2 years which provide enough birth spacing,” he said.