Youth situation in Cambodia

More than half of Cambodia's population (14.5 million) is under 20 years old, and nearly 20% of the population is between 15 - 24 years old. These young generations face various kinds of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) issues, including increasing drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion, gender inequalities, unmet needs of ASRH information and services, trafficking and sexual exploitation. However, Cambodia has no specific policy on ASRH.

Although there are no legal barriers to the implementation of ASRH activities, lack of infrastructure and resources as well as socio-cultural attitudes have become barriers. Openly talking about sex is still considered taboo, and there is still a long way to go in promoting sexual and reproductive health of young people in Cambodia.

JOICFP mission

From 15th to 17th November, Ryoko Nishida, Director, and Kei Yoshidome, Program Officer, International Program, JOICFP, visited Cambodia to discuss the ASRH situation with concerned partner organizations. These included UNFPA Cambodia, the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia, the National Reproductive Health Program, and the Khmer Youth Association.

The JOICFP team also collected information necessary for developing a country specific strategy of community advocacy under the UNFPA Asia Regional Project "Strengthening Advocacy for ASRH Programs through Youth Initiative" (RAS5R205).

In addition, the team followed up on the Planning Meeting on the UNFPA project, held from 4th to 8th October in Tokyo.

This regional project will be integrated with on-going ASRH activities under the UNFPA country program by focusing on empowering young people as advocates for their ASRH needs and issues in rural communities, and creating an enabling and supportive environment for the youth initiative.

As project sites, two government health centers in Kampong Cham Province have been identified where RHAC has been implementing an ASRH project under the EU/UNFPA RHIYA Project since September 2003.

At a newly built youth center, located next to the Thmoo Pich Health Center, JOICFP met with health center staff, a village chief, a youth volunteer and an end-user young person. Under the health center, there are no village health volunteers, and only youth volunteers are currently being trained to conduct sex education towards peers.

The new youth center

Seap Ean, a 19-year-old active youth volunteer, shares her experience

"Since talking about reproductive health is considered taboo, sometimes it is difficult for me to attract young people to sex education sessions. I try to do this by incorporating funny stories or jokes into the RH messages so that they will enjoy themselves in the sessions and come to the center again.

I also am organizing small sessions at my house for those who cannot come to the youth center. We need a support group to talk to our parents so that their children can easily attend the sex education sessions. Personally, I would like to learn English at the Youth Center to communicate with people from other countries."

Seap An shares her views
on RH advocacy for young people

Sok Srip, village chief

"In the beginning, many parents do not allow their children to attend sex education sessions. But I keep trying to explain the importance of sex education for better health of young people. I am communicating with parents and villagers by using occasions such as a celebration day, when people easily gather. Poverty and the low literacy rate of the people in the community hinders them from having an interest in health issues."

Sok Srip

In order to make the opinions on ASRH of the young people in the rural community more valued and more widely heard, JOICFP is starting a new ASRH advocacy project in collaboration with partners from the village to national level partners.