Dominican Republic has one of the world’s highest frequencies of child marriage and teenage mothers. One of the girls you see on one of the pictures here, was 14 years old when she got married and shortly after she gave birth her son. She lost the opportunity for schooling and work.
The culture of this is so strong in the country, that it is difficult to convince the girls to use contraception and finish school before getting married and have children. The poorest girls here are fiksing this to be the most important goal to achieve in life – and certainly do not want birth control. They usually get up to 10 children and start at a very young age. Medical complications after pregnancy and birth in teens are the leading cause of death in the world in women from 15-19 years. And early pregnancy prevents schooling in the vast majority.
We are therefore very excited over the attendance in our birth control program. We have already included nearly 100 young women in the program. We hold lectures monthly and provide contraception for a year which they must collect reguarly at the pharmacy. We also insert implanons, which last for 3 years. We hope that these girls will tell their friends about this opportunity and that the program can expand month by month.
