In some rural areas of Vietnam, century old traditions determine todays’ life, hardly imaginable in our rapidly evolving times. Teenage girls get pregnant at a very young age, have to marry and have to leave school immediately. The youths would like to break free from the tradition, but how? MCNV has developed a plan to help and with your support we will succeed!
Program manager Tung explains what MCNV intends to do to help ethnic minority youth in the mountainous area on the Vietnam Laos border: “These youth lack in their social-economic development and have very little access to proper education, health care and social services. Because of poor knowledge of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and because of the tradition, teenage pregnancies and marriages and school dropout are very common for youth in these areas. Girls are often encouraged to marry before their 18th birthday. One thing leads to the other, unprotected sex leads to unwanted pregnancies and child marriages, which in its turn lead to school dropout and to the impossibility to find a proper job.
Break the silence
Both in Dien Bien province in the North as in Quang Tri province in Central Vietnam we hope to bring some change. Changing century old traditions takes time, but we think it is important to show these youth that they have rights too, that they’re valuable for society and that their opinion counts. Raising awareness in both the teenagers and their parents is a first step we take together with local healthcare providers and schools. We learn them to tell their stories, to make themselves heard. Together with local teachers we introduced a new method for sexual education and we try to inspire girls to return to school.
Our request
In Quang Tri we start a new project for 2500 ethnic minority girls from 12 to 19 years old. Also, their parents and the boys from the area will be involved. The project is about raising awareness: with your contribution we can help these youths to be more confident, but also, we can learn them to protect themselves against sexually transmittable diseases and unwanted pregnancies.
These teenagers very much need your help to be able to break with the old-fashioned tradition. Tung and his colleagues hope together you will raise € 30.000. On behalf of all we sincerely thank you for your support!
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