HANOI, March 28 (AFP) - Debate is raging in Vietnam about introducing sex education in schools for youngsters in a country where some 300,000 teenagers resort to having abortions every year.
But while many doctors and teachers believe young people need information to be able to protect themselves, they have met stiff resistance among traditional, older Vietnamese for whom sex is still a taboo subject.
The result is that most Vietnamese teenagers remain innocent of even the most basic facts of life, with no sex education on the school curriculum and a reluctance at home to discuss such intimate issues.
"Is it possible to get pregnant just by kissing?" is a common question on the pioneering radio show "Window of Love" hosted by Thanh Van, in which health experts and pyschologists answer a variety of questions on love and sex.
Girls as young as 13 and up to 17 account for 20 percent of some 1.3 million abortions conducted annually in the country. About 100 teens die every year from backstreet abortions, according to official figures.
"I didn't know what to do. I was too scared to talk with my parents. It's so humiliating to ask elders' advice for such kind of things", said 15-year-old Nguyen Ha in tears.
She finally plucked up courage to ask her mother's help when she was five months pregnant and resolved to have an abortion, which is legal in Vietnam. She went to a state hospital, although many young girls, ashamed of being found out, prefer to go to underground clincs.
But the abortion took a heavy toll on Nguyen, physically and emotionally. She feared being found out and villified by her friends and teachers, and was eventually unable to complete her school year.
After three years on air, the radio show Window of Love has answered more than 100,000 questions on affairs of the heart in this deeply conservative country.
It has proved so successful that it is to be replicated soon by other local radio stations across the nation.
But health officials and educators insist more needs to be done.
"Our hospital has to deal with nearly 10,000 abortions each year, and it hurts that most of the young patients do not have any knowledge about sexual health," said gynaecologist Le Thanh Thuy of the National Obstetric Hospital.
Like most of her colleagues, Thuy supports the idea of teaching sex education to teenagers in school.
"It's necessary to provide youth with the knowledge they need to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and AIDS," she said.
But protesters argue teaching children about sex only gives them ideas about indulging too early.
"It's like showing the way to a fleeing deer", said Tran Van Ly, the father of a 14-year-old girl who believes "sex education is a family affair and should be taught at home in accordance with the parents' own values."
But radio host Thanh Van highlighted there has been a great demand from youngsters to be given instruction on sexual behaviour.
And Vietnam has begun tentative moves to improve sex education by launching question-and-answer programmes in the official radio and setting up consultant centres for teenagers.
They are backed by international help from the European Union and United Nations Population Fund which have so far sponsored eight projects on Teenage Reproductive Health in Vietnam.
Among them, the Youth's House, a reproductive health consultant centre and clinic for teenagers opened in Hanoi in late 2000 which has provided help for nearly 30,000 people.
"An increasing number of teenagers come for our services, mainly for advice on where to go for birth control, factual information about abortion, ethical issues about abortion and sexual orientation", said director Nguyen Thu Giang.
020328
AF020393
Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2002 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission.. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2002. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2002 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
