More than 30 young people from different areas and settlements of Moldova came together to identify solutions to prevent deviant behaviors of young people, namely unwanted pregnancies among teenage girls, unsafe sex, and alcohol and tobacco use among teens. The organizers said the young people in Moldova face a series of risks and challenges, but they are also those who can provide the best solutions, IPN reports.

UNFPA Representative in Moldova Ian McFarlane said the best solutions to the problems confronting the young people are generated by the young people. “We have many wonderful things – policies, plans, working materials – and it is assumed that we know what to do, but in fact we do not make the progress we need. We want a different approach. We want to think creatively and to have ties that we didn’t have until now,” he stated.

Ian McFarlane noted that in discussions, the young people provide original ideas. “This workshop will help identify solutions for implementing such ideas. The Moldovan young people are a very important source for positive changes. The whole society will benefit when we invest in the youth,” he said.

Project coordinator at the UNFPA Moldova Office Eduard Mihalas said the role of the youth is to generate innovative ideas that haven’t been applied in Moldova. “This exercise is implemented in Moldova for the first time and will be afterward used in another 40 countries. It is a global effort by the United Nations Population Fund to promote innovations in its daily activity. The most original solutions will be put into practice. We will look for funds and will then implement them at national level,” he stated.

Participant Vlad Calus said that information is a solution for combating the use of alcohol among young people and for reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. The school curriculum does not contain sufficient information about the dangers associated with smoking and drinking of alcohol and the teachers should thus inform the young people about such dangers at classes.

Statistics show that 59% of the people aged between 15 and 24 in Moldova had been inebriated. 2/3 of the boys and ¼ of the girls aged between 15 and 16 smoked cigarettes at least once. Though the pregnancy rate among teenage girls decreased over the last two decades in Moldova, this indicator is still very high compared with some European countries. More than 50% of the people aged 15-24 have sexual experience, but only half of them used the condom during the last sexual intercourse. Approximately 40% of the persons aged 10-19 do not know the infection and pregnancy risks to which they expose themselves during one sexual intercourse.