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Experts Stella Ronner-Grubacic, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Romania, and Rita Columbia, UNFPA Moldova Representative, as well as other participants in the event, journalists, young people, representatives of Moldovan NGOs, discussed about the situation of young people’s health in Moldova, respect for their rights, in particular, for the right to sexual and reproductive health, the need for compulsory health education programs in schools, and other issues.
According to the two experts, because such topics are taboo in our society, young people often do not know how to protect themselves, what a pregnancy means, how it can be detected, etc. Moreover, parents do not consider it appropriate to discuss such sensitive topics with their children.
In this situation, UNFPA Moldova, with the financial support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Romania, will implement, for 24 months, a project on the sexual and reproductive health of young people and on the rights of the child. The project is aimed at young people aged between 10 and 19 and it intends to involve them in activities, at school and outside school, ensuring to them broad access to friendly health information and services.
The journalists present at the press club asked about the role of media in informing parents and young people about reproductive health, and Rita Columbia said that the project includes activities involving both parents and media. “From by interaction with reporters and with heads of media organizations, I understood that the same message should be promoted at both national and local levels. One of our goals will be ‘Go Local,’ meaning ‘go as close as possible to the local, district level,’ including in terms of interaction with media. People often have more trust in local media than in national outlets. Our actions will be coordinated in such a way that what is transmitted at the national level can reach the local level, too, so as to have an identical message,” underlined the UNFPA Moldova Representative.
In the same context, Ambassador Stella Ronner-Grubacic believes that the impact of media in such issues is smaller, while the most influential factor is the community. “I would like to believe in the interaction with media, but, as mentioned earlier, sexual reproductive health is influenced to a greater extent by the community. The attitude of the community and its behavior have a greater impact than media.”
The event was organized with the support of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Moldova.
The Independent Journalism Center (IJC) is the first media organization to provide assistance to journalists and media outlets in Moldova with the aim of contributing to the consolidation of free and viable media through projects providing training in journalism and public relations, media campaigns, advocacy, research and media education.
