Join hands for the future of girls

The disadvantages...

Cases of giving birth before the age of 18 in Nghia Tho commune (Nghia Dan) are not rare. Most recently, a girl named Nguyen Thi D. was born in 2010 but gave birth without a husband.

As a commune population officer, Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Phuong shared that she was very sad when she met girls her daughter's age, "knowing nothing" but having to be single mothers. "When her mother brought her to the health station, the fetus was already big. We advised the family to let her give birth because it would affect her health. After she gave birth, she was also advised to get an IUD inserted early to avoid another miscarriage," Ms. Phuong recounted.

The population of Nghia Tho commune is mostly Tho ethnic people. In recent years, despite promoting propaganda and mobilization work, every year the situationearly marriage, early marriage or giving birth while underage still happens.

In these cases, most of the time the parents work far away, leaving the children with their grandparents, so there is no one to take care of them or advise them, leading to early sexual relations and unsafe sex. When the matter is discovered, it is too late.

Pregnancy and childbirth before adulthood have left many consequences. But this reality is still happening in many localities across the province, forcing many school-age girls to drop out of school to start their lives as mothers and wives.

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In adolescence, pregnancy and childbirth will face many difficulties and pressures, with many risks that endanger the mother and fetus. On the other hand, when pregnant unintentionally, adolescents tend to seek unsafe abortion addresses and services to terminate the pregnancy, thereby causing serious complications...

In addition, if the children are born when the mother is too young, the rate of children with abnormalities such as premature birth, low birth weight, malnutrition is high. That makes the children grow up to be sick, causing more medical examination and treatment costs.

Specialist Doctor I Nguyen Thi Hong - Deputy Head of Reproductive Health Department - Nghe An Provincial Center for Disease Control

According to Dr. Hong, the reason why teenage pregnancies and births are increasing is because these children lack access to reproductive health care services and have not received adequate education about sexual health.

In Nghe An, although there are annual communication sessions on reproductive health care and health for adolescents and young people, due to limited funding, the activities mainly focus on a few schools. Communication activities are only individual and have not yet formed a consistent system at the grassroots level.

In addition to the above problems, due to the influence of Asian culture and the ideology of male superiority over female, the preference and desire to have a son so that "in old age one has support"; to have a child to "continue the family line"... gender inequality still exists in many families and clans in Nghe An.

This is also the cause of the gender imbalance at birth, which is an "alarm bell" for current population work. According to statistics, if the sex ratio at birth in Vietnam in 2023 is 112 boys/100 girls, the sex ratio at birth in Nghe An is 116.33 boys/100 girls - higher than the national average.

Eliminate gender stereotypes

“Vision for Girls' Future” is the theme ofInternational Day of the Girl Child2024. Every year, the International Day of the Girl Child is held once to create opportunities for girls to fight, rise up and raise awareness. At the same time, this is an occasion for the whole world to pay attention to issues of discrimination and violence against women and girls.

To celebrate this year's International Day of the Girl Child, students of Nghia Hoan Secondary School (Tan Ky) sent many meaningful messages through scenes, skits or presentations performed by the girls themselves.

Participating in the skit “10 girls at Dong Loc crossroads”, student Ha Anh said: "I really admire the previous generations. At that time, despite the war and hardship, our grandmothers and mothers still dared to stand up and fight for the dream of national independence. Through that, we also want to say that, no matter the circumstances, girls always stand up and write down their dreams.

Meanwhile, with the play "Reaching for the Dream", students sent a thought-provoking story about a family that "prefers boys over girls", where girls are not cared for or respected even though compared to boys they are still good and achieve high academic results.

Representative of the unit co-organizing the communication program in response to the International Day of the Girl Child, Mr. Hoang Dinh Son - Vice Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee shared: "The stories that students bring are very meaningful. Currently, due to prejudice, many families still try to give birth to boys, leading to many consequences. However, reality shows that many families give birth to girls who take care of their parents and grandparents better than boys, and women are even the pillars of the family. Therefore, they deserve to be given more opportunities, more equality in all areas such as education, health, nutrition, or protection from discrimination, violence and eliminating child marriage, especially in ethnic minority areas".

With the same meaning, this year’s International Day of the Girl Child was implemented by the Nghe An Population Department with many practical activities. This is also an opportunity for society to pay attention to issues of discrimination and violence against women and girls.

Mr. Hoang Dinh Tung - Head of the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning said: "In recent years, the role and position of girls have been increasingly affirmed in Vietnamese society. However, due to the influence of Asian culture and the ideology of male superiority over female, compared to men, women and even girls are at a disadvantage. The most obvious thing is gender inequality, the problem of gender imbalance at birth, and domestic violence".

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To enhance the role and status of women, eliminate gender stereotypes, and develop the future of girls, we need to increase propaganda and education with various appropriate contents and forms to create supportive public opinion and gradually eliminate the distinction between boys and girls in the minds of many people.

In particular, focusing on the issue of gender bias, the psychology of preferring boys over girls, further promoting the participation of men for gender equality. Promoting the role, enhancing the position of women and girls, mobilizing people to change their thinking, awareness and actions on the issue of gender disparity at birth by strengthening propaganda and dissemination of documents, guidelines, policies and laws of the Party and State such as: Law on Gender Equality; Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence; Law on Marriage and Family to promote the community to implement policies to support the enhancement of the role and position of girls in particular and women in general, especially girls in families where only one child is a girl...

Mr. Hoang Dinh Tung - Head of the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning