20 young people from Pîrliţa village, Ungheni district walked 4 km, shared leaflets and talked to the community residents about the importance of healthy lifestyle. The adolescents had the following messages: “Say yes to your health”, “My right, my choice,” etc., thus promoting the importance of healthy lifestyle through the prevention of risky behavior: use of alcohol and drugs, teenage pregnancies, etc.
On the same day, the community school held a seminar attended by parents, teachers, teenagers, the doctor and the priest. They discussed and identified the actions the community should take to solve the problems faced by young people, such as: introduction of the optional class “Education for Health”, thematic discussions and meetings with parents and young people, etc.
The school in Pîrlița, Ungheni is one of the 15 schools from Cahul, Orhei, Rezina, Falesti and Ungheni districts that received mini-grants to promote education for health in their community. Similar actions – exhibitions of drawings, TVC, social theatre, flash-mobs, painting of public spaces, etc. – will be taken in the other 14 communities this autumn.
“Education for Health” is an optional subject taught to students of grades I-XII if it is requested. In the 2018-2019 school year, over 19,000 adolescents wanted to learn this discipline, which represents only 10% of the total number of adolescents who need this information.
Since 2018, 37 communities from Cahul, Orhei, Rezina, Falesti and Ungheni districts participate in the UNFPA program of promoting education for health among youth, conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova, NGO Partnerships for each child and the Educational Center Pro Didactica.