By Connie B. Destura
DAET, Camarines Norte, (PNA) – Everyone has the right to enjoy reproductive health (RH), which is a basis for having healthy children, intimate relationships and happy families.
It is under this tenet that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is intensifying in Camarines Norte its involvement in the delivery of services that intend to promote RH among women in the province so that they are guided into wisely deciding on family planning and sexual health.
This is in line with the mandate of UNFPA in consonance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly Goal 5, which is to provide proper maternal health services and universal access to RH and correct information.
The UNFPA envisions communities where every pregnancy is wanted, every child delivery is safe, the youth free from HIV-AIDS and every woman, young and adult treated with dignity and respect.
It said RH problems remain the leading cause of ill health and death for women of childbearing age worldwide as impoverished women, especially those living in developing countries, suffer disproportionately from unintended pregnancies, maternal death and disability, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, gender-based violence and other problems related to their reproductive system and sexual behavior.
Because young people often face barriers in trying to get the information or care they need, adolescent reproductive health is another important focus of UNFPA programming.
And all programming relies on the availability of essential supplies.
The critical importance of reproductive health to development has been acknowledged at the highest level.
At the 2005 World Summit, world leaders added universal access to reproductive health as a target in MDGs framework.
The UNFPA is fully committed to mobilizing support and scaling up efforts to make reproductive health for all a reality by 2015.
The UNFPA is a UN organization that works on the promotion of the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.
One important project the organization has recently brought to Camarines Norte was the free conduct of bilateral tubal ligation, non-scalpel vasectomy,IUD insertion and Implanon which was offered to all qualified individuals in the province.
It was conducted at the Camarines Norte Provincial Hospital in Daet town and at the Labo District Hospital in the municipality of Labo.
Doctors and nurses from the Dr. Jose Fabilla Memorial Hospital in Manila spearheaded the implementation of the project that offered free birth control procedures, among them the newest technology called Implanon.