MSD advocates health literacy intervention for urban youth

MANILA, Philippines - As the community’s most vulnerable members, young people, including out-of-school youth, are the main beneficiaries of a health literacy program launched by a network of groups, including global health care leader MSD in the Philippines.

The program aims to decrease health risks that the urban poor youth encounter, and assist them to be in a position better able to help themselves and those around them.

Over the last decade in the Philippines, around 30 percent of students in elementary and high school have dropped out, not counting youth aged seven to 24 who did not ever go to school because they were too poor or too neglected.

In urban poor settings, dropouts usually end up as street children, begging in hazardous roads or being driven into the informal economy as cigarette peddlers to earn a few pesos for their struggling families.

Sometimes the children are pulled out of classrooms to look after their siblings while their parents are at work. Older youth who quit school often fail to find employment precisely because of their low educational attainment. Because these kids have low self-esteem, they can be prone to acts of street gangsters, abuse, addiction and other risky behaviors.

Both frustrating and hopeful is the fact that access to even the most basic yet essential health information can somehow already equip them to manage current and future challenges.

But it is hardly surprising that many of them do not develop a consciousness for basic health and hygiene because that is truly the least of their worries, given that their everyday lives are plagued with serious threats of pregnancy, prostitution, and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS. At their age, they are either unaware or unconcerned about the seriousness of disease and deprivation.

And yet given the opportunity, many youth would want to improve their lives. Such is the case in Muntinlupa City which serves as a pilot area for a health education campaign that will provide disadvantaged youth the resources and services they need to effect healthful, positive changes to themselves and in the community.

The Muntinlupa Youth Health Development Program will reach out initially to four public high schools and one public university in the city. Over a period of three years, project stakeholders will raise a culture of awareness and active participation among Muntinlupa youth to enable them to address issues that can derail them.

The MSD-IRH-sponsored program, which intends to improve access to youth-friendly health services and information in Muntinlupa, will run for three years with the cooperation of the youth themselves, along with public school students, teachers, local government, and barangay officials.

In the past, the city government of Muntinlupa has launched laudable projects for its youth population, including providing summer jobs for them, and the Youth Health Development Program is another way for the city’s leaders to empower and protect young people from being marginalized.

“The country prides itself in its rich human resources but without access to their right to education and basic health services, children will not grow up to their full potential and become responsible citizens,” said MSD managing director Chris Tan.

“The best time to intervene and end the cycle of neglect is now. We want to give Filipino youth a chance to be happy and healthy, to be heard, to create their own positive experiences,” Tan added.