Children having children in Latin America (and around the world)

[AndyLee]

This was on the NY Times newsfeed this morning. It is sobering, disquieting and just sad. But it is so true of the Latin American and Asian countries I've visited over the years. It only tells part of the story, the part dealing with teenage marriages. It fails to mention the teenage girls who get pregnant from rape, incest,  sexual coercion from immature boyfriends who are often years or decades older than the girl. Even with boys her own age there are so many sexual encounters brought about by puppy love lust.
There is not much that I personally can do about it, other than feel compassion and sympathy for the children who go through this. When I hear a young mother's story about being abandoned by her boyfriend or husband when she was 4 months pregnant I know she and her child are victims, just like millions around the world.
Personally, I place a large percentage of blame on the Catholic Church and Conservative Christians who have used their power to prevent sex education in schools and to prevent free distribution of family planning and birth control information in communities.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-child-bride-mother-stephanie-sinclair.html?_r=1

[mudd]

i do not know about some places around the world but in medellin, its a  problem, girls as young as 13 having sex with men way older.  seen so many girls 14 to 17  with babies and of course the father is gone or refuses to help. many girls trapped in the same poor barrios as their parents with no future.


one problem i noticed, you see all these barrios with bldgs and houses stacked on each other, with no places for the kids to play, no parks, no  recreation centers, nothing. so all these kids just sit around, bored.   what happens to kids with nothing to do, drugs, sex, crime ect.

[Ragin Cajun]

Agreed.... we went up to Bello one Sunday to visit some of my wife's relatives, and I couldn't help but notice so many young single mothers.. I've never seen anything like it.

[Gavan]

I know a girl in Peru who got pregnant when she was 14    She still looked like a little girl and lived in one of the poorest "pueblos jovenes" (slums) in Trujillo. Very sad. I am pretty sure her boyfriend is a "piraña" (teenage gangster) too.

[AndyLee]

i do not know about some places around the world but in medellin, its a  problem, girls as young as 13 having sex with men way older.  seen so many girls 14 to 17  with babies and of course the father is gone or refuses to help. many girls trapped in the same poor barrios as their parents with no future.


one problem i noticed, you see all these barrios with bldgs and houses stacked on each other, with no places for the kids to play, no parks, no  recreation centers, nothing. so all these kids just sit around, bored.   what happens to kids with nothing to do, drugs, sex, crime ect.

The video in the story was especially disturbing to me. It features mostly married girls, but imagine, for every 1 married girl there are dozens of unmarried ones, probably.


I see a family two streets over from me where the little girl is 11 and already has a steady boyfriend who looks to be mid to late twenties. The girl has never met her father, he apparently disappeared when the mother got pregnant, which is a repeat of the grandmother's story getting pregnant at a young age. The girl is 11, her mother probably late 20's, and the grandmother is less than 50, and the great grandparents live on a finca about an hour from here. So, this 11 year old girl knows her great grandparents, who from the history in this family will become great great grandparents within the next few years.
You're right, these kids don't have anything to do other than hang out, be bored, get high and watch Colombian television which is full of suggestive scenes. These kids don't have any responsible role models or mentors. I swear some of these girls start relationships with men just so they can get some male attention which has been lacking all their lives. There was one scene in the video where the little girl said the wedding day was special because she got to wear a big white dress. That was probably the saddest line  in the whole story.

[AndyLee]

I know a girl in Peru who got pregnant when she was 14    She still looked like a little girl and lived in one of the poorest "pueblos jovenes" (slums) in Trujillo. Very sad. I am pretty sure her boyfriend is a "piraña" (teenage gangster) too.

Yes, I see it in the cities and pueblos in Colombia, where the family lives in serious poverty, some without indoor plumbing even. Two families that live near me live in houses so bad they don't have to pay rent, just the minimum services.
The family of women I mentioned earlier has four people living off the grandmother's income of 180,000 month (about $20 USD per week) plus what the mother can make washing clothes by hand. The little girl comes on my street occasionally and knocks on doors asking for food or clothes. She doesn't go to school because she can't afford the uniform, and the school won't let her attend without the proper uniform. Sad.

[Ragin Cajun]

Indeed it is, Andy... unless something can be done to break this vicious cycle, it will continue for generations to come.

[Gavan]

Yes, I see it in the cities and pueblos in Colombia, where the family lives in serious poverty, some without indoor plumbing even. Two families that live near me live in houses so bad they don't have to pay rent, just the minimum services.
The family of women I mentioned earlier has four people living off the grandmother's income of 180,000 month (about $20 USD per week) plus what the mother can make washing clothes by hand. The little girl comes on my street occasionally and knocks on doors asking for food or clothes. She doesn't go to school because she can't afford the uniform, and the school won't let her attend without the proper uniform. Sad.

The girl I was talking about lives with her sister and mother in a shack in the slums. Her mother was the cleaning lady in the apartment building where I used to live. I don't know how much she  made but it wasn't much at all. Probably a couple of hundred soles a month (maybe $100 - 150 a month or so). The girl's sister now also has a baby. She is a little older (20) but still, she really can't afford to raise a kid. My ex girlfriend used to give this older girl advice all the time, telling her not to get pregnant and to use birth control, but she ignored the advice...

[robert angel]

Very different socioeconomic demographics, but even in the USA, where in some commuties they will give middle and high school adolescents (kids) free contraceptives with no obligation to inform the parents, seeing girls in their young teen's pregnant hardly raises eyebrows anymore. In some circles the female's peers even express an odd sort of envy, as if the girl is finally getting a real life 'doll' to play with. Although it typically screws up their already dysfunctional lives, quite often the burden of care for one or two generations falls upon the grandparents.

[fathertime]

There is not much that I personally can do about it, other than feel compassion and sympathy for the children who go through this. When I hear a young mother's story about being abandoned by her boyfriend or husband when she was 4 months pregnant I know she and her child are victims, just like millions around the world.
Personally, I place a large percentage of blame on the Catholic Church and Conservative Christians who have used their power to prevent sex education in schools and to prevent free distribution of family planning and birth control information in communities.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-child-bride-mother-stephanie-sinclair.html?_r=1

Hey Andy,  that was a great story so thanks for bringing it to light here.


There are many things I want to do when I retire, and for me it will be earlier then most (I hope)...one of those things is I would like to become involved in ONE family in need's life.  Probably in South America or other Spanish speaking country. I'd like to offer them the support they need from clothing, medical attention, education and housing, to future aspirations and enjoyment.    It will have to be a particular family that I feel I can connect with, like, and works hard.  The types of families this video depicts could be prime candidates and I'm sure there won't be a shortage of them in a few years.  We shall see...but I feel helping one young family and seeing their station in life improve would be very rewarding, and a win-win. 




Fathertime!   

[AndyLee]

There are many things I want to do when I retire, and for me it will be earlier then most (I hope)...one of those things is I would like to become involved in ONE family in need's life.  Probably in South America or other Spanish speaking country. I'd like to offer them the support they need from clothing, medical attention, education and housing, to future aspirations and enjoyment.    It will have to be a particular family that I feel I can connect with, like, and works hard.  The types of families this video depicts could be prime candidates and I'm sure there won't be a shortage of them in a few years.  We shall see...but I feel helping one young family and seeing their station in life improve would be very rewarding, and a win-win. 

Fathertime!

Good plan, FT, I'm beginning to think of ways I can do something similar here. Up till now I've been just volunteering to teach English, but when you get right down to it, probably the last thing these kids need is a second language. I could better spend my time teaching hygiene, nutrition and that sort of thing.
Colombia is the leader in Latin America in teenage pregnancies. The government recognizes the problem and has established a new department to begin educating teenagers and their parents. Colombia recognizes that teenage pregnancy is both a consequence of poverty, and causes more poverty.
A quick internet search shows 20% of teenagers will get pregnant in Colombia, compared to 7% in US. I was not surprised to find that in the US the rate of pregnancy among Blacks and Hispanics is almost twice as high as among caucasians.
What is especially cringe inducing is to discover that 13,000 Colombian girls aged 10-14 have become pregnant over the past two years.
Here's an article that sums up all these factors. I've added bold type to some of the information.
Begin quote:
[/size][/color]BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombia has created a new government body to reduce the high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the country, a problem that shows little sign of abating in the Andean nation.[/font]
[/size][/color]Nearly 13,000 Colombian girls aged between 10 and 14 became pregnant in the last two years, and poverty is one factor behind Colombia’s high teenage pregnancy rates, which are among the highest in Latin America.[/font]
[/size][/color]“Teenage pregnancy is both a cause and consequence of big economic inequalities,” Cristina Plazas, the new head of Colombia’s child and family protection agency (ICBF), said in a statement on Tuesday.[/font]
[/size][/color]“One in every five women in Colombia between 15 to 19 years of age are or have been pregnant, and what’s most worrying is that 64 percent of those pregnancies were not planned,” Plazas said, adding that a new entity exclusively tasked with tackling teenage pregnancy will be created within the ICBF government agency.[/font]
[/size][/color]Having sex with a child under the age of 14 is a crime in Colombia, carrying a prison sentence from 12 to 20 years, but few are convicted of the crime, and even fewer people are sent to jail.[/font]
[/size][/color]Rights groups say adolescent pregnancy is fuelled by rape at the hands of relatives and stepfathers, which is still largely a taboo subject in Colombia, a lack of education and access to contraception and poor sex education in schools.[/font]
[/size][/color]With 20 percent of teenage girls (aged up to 19) pregnant over the course of this year, Colombia is unlikely to meet its target to reduce teen pregnancy to 15 percent by 2015 as part of its U.N. Millennium Development Goals[/b][/color].[/font]
[/size][/color]CYCLE OF POVERTY[/font]
[/size][/color]Teenage mothers in Colombia, like in other countries in Latin American and in the developing world, are more likely to earn less as adults and drop out of school, making it difficult to break the cycle of poverty that grips many young mothers. They are also much more likely to have a second child shortly after their first child, and become parents of children who go on to become teenage parents themselves, according to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).[/font]
[/size][/color]Teenage pregnancy can lead to health problems for the mother and child. Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 in many developing countries, while babies born to teenage mothers are more likely to be born premature and have a low birth weight, which can affect their health and development, according to the World Health Organization.[/font]
[/size][/color]Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region in the world to see an increase in the percentage of women experiencing at least one birth before the age of 15, according to surveys carried out between 1990 and 2011, the UNFPA said in a report last year.[/font]
[/size][/color]End quote:[/font]
[/size][/color][/font]

[Awesome]

How hard can it be for the public schools to start educating kids at a young age the simple concept that having a baby out of wedlock is not acceptable.  Teach the BOYS that not supporting your offspring is NOT acceptable.


I think the real problem is that these teen pregnancies only occur in the poor areas and therefore the upper class colombians could care less if the poor, uneducated people perpetually keep themselves impoverished.


Colombia has some of the most extreme inequality of wealth distribution in the world.  That didn't happen overnight and it didn't happen by accident.


Think of it this way.  If you study the history of colombia you'll see that the landed elite of colombian society will stop at nothing to prevent poor colombians from improving their situation.  Rich colombians believe they are the only people in colombia who are entitled to live a safe, comfortable life.  In colombia if you try to stand up for basic rights for poor people a right-wing death squad will be sent to your house to kill you, literally.

[AndyLee]

When I saw this video I thought of FT's plan and there is one scene in the video that is especially poignant, the little beggar girl. It is inspiring me to do something, I'm not sure what yet, but something more than I have been doing.


https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=488904314587624&set=vb.468886999922689&type=2&theater

[Awesome]

When I saw this video I thought of FT's plan and there is one scene in the video that is especially poignant, the little beggar girl. It is inspiring me to do something, I'm not sure what yet, but something more than I have been doing.


https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=488904314587624&set=vb.468886999922689&type=2&theater

Go volunteer at a church.  In college I used to volunteer at an after school program here in tx.  Univ of houston campus is located in a pretty rough neighborhood and I'd go down the street to a community assistance center where local kids would get dropped off and wait there until their parents came to pick them up after work.  We'd help the kids with their homework and then take them outside to play until their parents showed up.  I'm sure you could set up something like that where you're at.  You could make a huge impact on a child's life like that.  Recruit some local college kids to volunteer with you.  Teach them the importance of giving back to their community.  If you can convince just one little girl to stay in school rather than getting pregnant at 14 years old, that's huge.  Or if you can convince one little boy to stay in school instead of joining the local gang and being a drain on society, that's making a big difference.  Counsel the parents, especially the younger ones on how to keep their children on the right path.


My aunt's brother in law was down in colombia doing some missionary/volunteer work with some church and ended up marrying a colombiana and bringing her back to the states.  I haven't met the guy but I know his brother, my aunt's husband, and he's a great guy.  There are plenty of churches and volunteer groups in colombia who you can link up with.


But if you think about it if colombia wasn't so screwed up where would guys like calipro go to find their "pussy paradise"?  If colombia didn't have droves of desperate women there would be no marriage agencies, no cupid sites, this website wouldn't even exist.  Expat aka cocaine cowboy would have to go troll for 18 year olds in nepal or cambodia somewhere.  Be careful what you wish for jaja!

[robert angel]

A friend of ours is down in Guatemala now doing humanitarian work. She sent us this picture of these two girls with their children. It doesn't require words to convey the sadness of the situation.

Not as if they could fly away from their problems if they wanted to, but nearby 12,000 ft high volcano Mt. Fuego is erupting, covering the town is ashes leaving them all in danger of further misery and closing the international airport in their troubled nation's largest city.

[mudd]

just my opinion and observation, but in colombia, to fix the problem,
1, need to teach these kids sex ed in school, at 12 years old because  from what ive seen, 13 is too late
2, go after the dead beat fathers, (yeah wishful thinking there. )
3 build some parks, play grounds, rec centers, so these kids will have something to do
4 raise the legal age limit for minor from 16 to 18 and go after the men who have sex with these girls
5, raise the minimum wage in colombia ( yeah wishful thinking again)
6  better pay for good teachers, police.

[fathertime]

When I saw this video I thought of FT's plan and there is one scene in the video that is especially poignant, the little beggar girl. It is inspiring me to do something, I'm not sure what yet, but something more than I have been doing.


https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=488904314587624&set=vb.468886999922689&type=2&theater

That was a great video Andy.  I'm glad you are inspired and in a position to do something good.  Nobody can save the world, but it is possible to get involved in 1 person's family and make a very big difference.  I'll be curious what you embark upon and hope you share it here.


Fathertime!