Thursday, 3 February
The youth and reproduction health. The questions of sexual education of the youth were discussed within the frameworks of Russian-Swedish project that started on The 2nd February in Murmansk. Things that some years ago seemed shocking and happened rarely nowadays don’t astonish medical men. Every year in Murmansk 5-7 children are born with innate syphilis. About 11 abortions have the girls under 14 years. Among the girls of 15-19 years of age about 12% have abortions. Doctors know what terrible consequence it may have, that’s why they sound the alarm. The part of the youth that doesn’t possess the necessary information usually gets into trouble, due to early sexual relations. They can catch HIV, AIDS, and other diseases. Within the framework of international cooperation one can study the positive experience in solving these questions and adapting it in our modern conditions. For instance, in Sweden the questions of sexual education have been dealt with since 30s. And at the moment this program is aimed at everybody, no matter what the age or sex is. The project coordinator gave the following answer to the question why they had chosen Murmansk: "Everything started with the Association of Family planning that functions in Murmansk. We were invited to share our experience. Russia- is our northern neighbor, and this is one of the directions in our cooperation. The problem of HIV and AIDS exist and one of the ways of struggling with these diseases – is youth’s enlightenment. The peculiarity of the project is that not only medical men participate in the seminar. The representatives of the Educational Committee, volunteers and even parents will take part in the seminar. Now the medical men notice the increase in birth rate and the youth must be responsible for the health of their unborn children.
