Today, Monday, the Higher Population Council, in cooperation with ShareNet Jordan, held a meeting to launch a parents’ guide and a film to educate children in the field of reproductive health, and to announce the results of the media competition on the components of reproductive health, with the participation of a number of stakeholders and media professionals who participated in the competition.

According to a statement issued by the council, the parents’ guide to the reproductive health of their young children, both men and women, and the film entitled “Educating children about reproductive health” are among the outputs of the Project Improvement Program using the participatory approach. The guide and video aims to enhance dialogue between parents and their young children.

The statement indicated that the guide and the film were prepared by Jordanian experts in the fields of health, education and psychology, based on the recommendations of a number of studies prepared by the Higher Population Council and ShareNet Jordan, in addition to academic studies prepared by Jordanian researchers in cooperation with prestigious international universities, all of which called for strengthening the role of parents in educating their children in the field of their sexual and reproductive health.

The Secretary-General of the Higher Population Council, Dr. Issa Al-Masarwa, said that the Council is constantly striving to establish awareness of reproductive health aspects, especially among adolescents, men and women, because they will be the builders of the future and the main pillar of the forces of change, and because they do not receive the necessary attention and lack reliable information about reproductive health, although they are the group most in need of information and services, and they have biological and psychological needs that are not met in most cases.

Al-Masarwa indicated that the media competition on the components of reproductive health implemented by the Council aimed to raise the level of public awareness of the components and issues of reproductive health, by focusing on the print, electronic and visual media dealing with these issues and addressing them in the media with more depth and impact.

The competition included issues of eligibility and preparation for marriage, family planning, safe motherhood, HIV/AIDS, menopause, adolescence, gender-based violence and domestic violence.

During the meeting, the results of the media competition were announced. In the category of the best printed or electronic journalistic article, Mohammed Al-Lubani from the Al-Mamlaka News Channel website won the first place, and his article dealt with the topic of “electronic violence against women.” Meanwhile, the journalist Razan Al-Majali from Al-Rai newspaper won the second place with an article that dealt with the topic “Reproductive health for people with disabilities.” Meanwhile, Shereen Al-Soghair, a journalist from the Jordan Media Institute, won the third place with her article published in Al-Ghad newspaper, in which she dealt with the issue of “menopause.”

As for the category of the best visual media material, journalist Khaled Rashid, a student at the Middle East University, won first place with an article dealing with the topic of “AIDS”, while the journalist Shatha Kotaitat from the Radio and Television Corporation won second place with an article dealing with the topic of “Guesthouse for battered women”, and the journalist Salam Taha from Al-Mamlaka TV came third with an article dealing with the topic of “infertility”.

-(Petra)