KIANGAN, Ifugao — The municipal government partnered with two national groups to conduct Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive (ASRH) Camp on August 25-26 here in support of its 2017-2022 Comprehensive Local Juvenile Intervention Plan (CLJIP), the goal of which is to reduce the number of Children at Risk (CAR) and Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) in the community.
This ASRH Camp is a follow-through activity to the Life Skills Workshop conducted by the Weekend Mentors last May 5-6, 2018 that aimed to equip the children participants with the necessary skills and knowledge in being responsible adolescents relative to sexuality and reproductive health.
The Camp specifically seeks to increase the participants’ awareness on, and improve their attitude towards, human rights and the rights of the child, physical, physiological and psycho-social changes during adolescence and how to cope with these, risky behaviors and how to avoid and manage them, sexually-transmitted infections including HIV-AIDs and gender and sexuality including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression (SOGIE).
The participants are children 10-17 years old with priority given to those who completed the first session with additional participants from Barangays Poblacion and Baguinge.
The activity will be conducted by the Weekend Mentors, a national group of volunteers with diverse set of talents, advocacies, skills and knowledge, that will provide assistance to targeted sectors through education, training and coaching, and works within the framework of catalyzing human and social development through responsive and relevant travel-for-a-cause.
To further improve the effectiveness of the Camp, the Weekend Mentors will partner with the Y-PEER Pilipinas, a national network of individuals and organizations that demonstrate peer education as model to effectively and efficiently advocate increased access to information, knowledge and services on sexual and reproductive health and with their rich experience working with various groups around the country, will provide inputs on how the intervention will be sustained.
The LGU of Kiangan has identified the issue on CAR and CICL as a priority area in its engagement with the Angat Buhay Program of the Office of the Vice President and a meeting with the LGU will be piggybacked to the Camp to discuss and come up with concrete mechanism to ensure the sustainability of the ASRH advocacy which is a vital element in the operationalization of the Municipal CLJIP. **PIA Ifugao