NewsWhore
09-27-2011, 05:50 PM
For every 1000 women who become pregnant in this country, 92 are adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19, with a maternal mortality rate of 19%. A report says that 20.6% of all adolescents have been pregnant at some point.
The statistics place the Dominican Republic among the first five countries in the Americas, which is a cause for concern among the representatives of eight state institutions and international agencies that worked on the National Plan for the Prevention of Pregnancies in Adolescents which they presented to the country yesterday. Presenting the program, the Minister for Women, Alejandrina German, said that the aim was to strengthen the legal framework and the public policies for the development of adolescents.
United Nations Population Fund representative Sonia Vasquez said the issue should be placed on the national agenda and reported that the average in the continent was 70 adolescent pregnancies per 1000. Haiti has a rate of 90 per 1000 pregnancies. She said that the highest percentage of adolescents who are mothers or are pregnant was in Bahoruco, Barahona, Pedernales and Independencia. "This same region presents the lowest school attendance rate in the country with 28.7% (in Bahoruco it is even worse with a 24.9% rate) when the national average is 45%. This direct relationship is not a coincidence since we are dealing with the poorest provinces in the country," said Vasquez. The executive director of Profamilia, Magaly Caram, said that the Plan is one response to the current situation but it requires a budget assignment of 0.16% of GDP. The current budget allocates just 0.03%.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
The statistics place the Dominican Republic among the first five countries in the Americas, which is a cause for concern among the representatives of eight state institutions and international agencies that worked on the National Plan for the Prevention of Pregnancies in Adolescents which they presented to the country yesterday. Presenting the program, the Minister for Women, Alejandrina German, said that the aim was to strengthen the legal framework and the public policies for the development of adolescents.
United Nations Population Fund representative Sonia Vasquez said the issue should be placed on the national agenda and reported that the average in the continent was 70 adolescent pregnancies per 1000. Haiti has a rate of 90 per 1000 pregnancies. She said that the highest percentage of adolescents who are mothers or are pregnant was in Bahoruco, Barahona, Pedernales and Independencia. "This same region presents the lowest school attendance rate in the country with 28.7% (in Bahoruco it is even worse with a 24.9% rate) when the national average is 45%. This direct relationship is not a coincidence since we are dealing with the poorest provinces in the country," said Vasquez. The executive director of Profamilia, Magaly Caram, said that the Plan is one response to the current situation but it requires a budget assignment of 0.16% of GDP. The current budget allocates just 0.03%.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)