1001 Ways of
Talking’: Campaign aims to bring parents, teens closer
Being parents of adolescents is not
easy and Asep Sopari knows this firsthand.
He has long wanted to ask his
11-year-old son whether he had experienced his first wet dream – common in
puberty due to hormonal changes -- but the subject is shrouded
in myth rather than fact, which makes discussing it sensitive.
“I haven’t been able to ask him that
until now. [I’ve been wondering] how to frame the question. And what if my son
has more questions? Would I be ready with the answers? Working with teens comes
with the job,” said the subdivision head of the National Family Planning Board
(BKKBN)’s Directorate of Youth Resilience Development.
“What happens with uneducated parents
or those who are uninformed on reproductive health?”
He was speaking to the media when
unveiling a plan to launch a new program, called “1001 Cara Bicara” or 1001
ways of talking, which is aimed at returning the role of parents as first
reference of their children on sexual and reproductive health education, at the
first International Conference on Indonesian Family Planning and Reproductive
Health in Yogyakarta.
Family matters: Dinar Pandan Sari,
Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Program's (JHCCP) demand generation
officer, explains the campaign at the first International Conference on
Indonesian Family Planning and Reproductive Health in Yogyakarta. (Courtesy of
ICIFPRH 2019 /Lian)
The campaign will be officially
launched on Oct. 24 in Jakarta by SKATA, a parenting site that offers
information on sexual and reproductive health. The site, set up in 2015, is
supported by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Program (JHCCP) and the
BKKBN.
Lack of information on reproductive
health among teens is one of the aspects blamed for teen pregnancy and marriage
in Indonesia.
The Health Ministry’s 2018 Basic Health
Research (Riskesdas) found that 33.5 percent of girls aged 15 to19 fell
pregnant, while the 2016 National Social and Economic Survey (Susenas) revealed that one out of nine girls
under the age of 18 was married, with 0.5 percent of them being below the age
of 15.
This is not surprising considering that
teenagers have become permissive
toward premarital sex, while only five out of 10 realize that a girl can fall
pregnant the first time she has sex.
A number of aspects are said to be
behind the lack of knowledge, such as parents considering it taboo to talk
about sexual and reproductive health, even though they should play an important
role in delivering accurate information and in motivating and being role models
for their children.
“Parents are very enthusiastic to learn
about parenting when their children are little, but then stop as they grow
older. When their children grow up and become adolescents, the challenges confuse them,” said
Dinar Pandan Sari, JHCCP’s demand generation officer.
These days, she said, teens look upon
their friends and Google as their best friends, with some thinking their
parents do not have all the answers for their curious minds or they may get
scolded or lectured when asking questions. Parents lose control in the process.
SKATA aims to return the role to
parents as the first reference on sexual and reproductive health for their
children through the campaign.
“’1001 Cara Bicara’ is designed as a
program that may seem simple, but it will have a great impact in the future,”
Dinar said.
The campaign – which comprises an e-book,
brief video tips and other various products like journals and flashcards – is
expected to inspire parents to find the right way to communicate with their
teenage children. All will be accessible online.
The book is based on international
technical guidelines on sexual and reproductive health and touches on various
issues, starting from their daily routine to gadget habits, while the cards aim
to stimulate discussions on various issues between parents and children.
The journals, she said, are for the
parents to write down their experiences when they were young – like when the
mother first met the father or the first time they skipped school.
“The parents can then give the journals
to their children to read, sharing their own life experiences, to help their
children relate to them,” Dinar says.
The campaign has two goals, she said,
the first to build closeness, making parents approachable, and second to gain
the trust of their children. “The book’s content will also help parents explain
when their children want to know, for instance, about their period, why they
experience mood swings or start to like someone,” Dinar said.
The campaign, she said, will also be
interconnected with the DokterGenZ site, which offers information on sexual and
reproductive health issues for teenagers. “This way parents can view what their
teen’s experience.”
Difficult
Word:
Words
|
Noun
|
Verb
|
Adjective
|
Adverb
|
Phonetic (US)
|
Meaning
|
Shrouded
|
Shroud
|
shrouded
|
-
|
-
|
| sh roud|
|
cover or envelop so as to conceal from view
|
Revealed
|
-
|
reveal
|
-
|
-
|
|riˈvēl|
|
make (previously unknown or secret information)
known to others
|
Permissive
|
-
|
-
|
Permissive
|
-
|
|pərˈmisiv|
|
allowing or characterized by great or excessive
freedom of behavior
|
Adolescent
|
-
|
-
|
Adolescent
|
-
|
|ˌadlˈesənt|
|
(of a young person) in the process of developing
from a child into an adult
|
Comprises
|
-
|
Comprise
|
-
|
-
|
|kəmˈprīz|
|
consist of; be made up of
|
Enthusiastic
|
Enthusiast
|
-
|
Enthusiastic
|
-
|
|enˌθoōzēˈastik|
|
having or showing intense and eager enjoyment,
interest, or approval
|
Example sentence:
1.
mountains
shrouded by cloud
2.
She was
not a permissive parent
3.
His
adolescent years
4.
The
country comprises twenty states
5.
The promoter was
enthusiastic about the concert venue
Source:
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