Woman & Teen Health Project

Books-For-A-Cause™

I am a Refugee: From Liberia to Malaysia

In a fishing village in Kenya, we have documented female teenagers who engage in sexual relations with men they barely know in exchange for some cash in order to buy sanitary pads.

In some pockets of refugee communities in Malaysia, innocent girls as young as 10 years old are about to be “married off” to some 30 years old man and are about to experience the worst nights of their lives. A few months later, these girls, not even 15 years old, could get pregnant and enter into motherhood.

Still, in many parts of the world, where reproductive health issues are still a taboo; children or teenagers are considered as commodities that can be sold or exchanged, rather than as human beings who have rights and agency over their bodies and future, a young girl or a young boy is vulnerable.

In many situations, the mere lack of education about reproductive health rights results in early pregnancies that could have irreversible impacts on a child’s life and future. But the more complex social conditions; for instance in the the Global South, a region suffering from feudal patriarchy, cultural and religious norms on top of other complex issues of poverty, war and displacement, among others, present a deeper problem that must be addressed.

Such is the motivation for the founding of Teen Health International (THI) which was initiated by a small group of refugee women in Malaysia in January 2022.

THI Initiator and Executive Director:

“Teen Health International was founded with a deep understanding of the particular challenges faced by adolescents, particularly girls, as they navigate through puberty and adolescence – formative years in which physical and psychological changes can have a lasting impact on one’s bodies, minds and future.

There is a critical need for a platform where teens and women could express their concerns and receive the help they desperately need especially for those who come from complex contexts such as poverty, displacement and bondage to patriarchal cultural norms that discriminate against women, girls and children in general.

The lack of available resources and support for this particular group underscored the critical need for a platform where one can get guidance and seek concrete support,”  

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