00:00 Hello and welcome to another Girls Off Mute episode from the Cape Verdean capital, Praia.
00:10 My name is Camila Lox and I'm 15 years old.
00:13 Today we're going to visit the Community Project Youth Clinic created by two young
00:17 Cape Verdean nurses to promote sexual and reproductive health.
00:21 They want to reduce teenage pregnancies and offer medical services to young people.
00:27 Do you want to know more?
00:28 Then join us!
00:31 When Vera Baruch and Neosa Leal were in high school, they had no access to proper sexual
00:36 and reproductive health services.
00:38 This saw many of their classmates leave school due to early pregnancy, which is why they
00:42 started their own project, a school youth clinic.
00:50 It's a clinic for youths, girls or boys who are of reproductive age, so they can get proper
00:59 family planning advice and if necessary, pregnant girls have health care assistance during their
01:04 pregnancies.
01:08 Five years after finishing their nursing training, Vera and Neosa returned to their old high
01:13 school, the Liceu Manuel Lopes.
01:17 They applied for funding and eventually managed to open their sexual health clinic.
01:21 Sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and everything concerning reproductive health
01:26 was discussed with the teenagers.
01:31 Even though we started this project which will hopefully help to reduce cases of early
01:35 pregnancies, we still need to do more because young people need to be educated on the subject.
01:44 They need to understand how to plan their lives, when it's a good time to start their
01:49 sexual and reproductive life, what they should do or shouldn't do.
01:57 By offering professional advice, they hope to create more awareness and prevent teenagers
02:02 from dropping out of school at an early age.
02:08 We have various activities for the school.
02:11 For example, we have lectures and we're going to have a wide range of professionals
02:15 to address different issues around sexual health.
02:20 Doctors will be offering gynecological consultations for teenagers and we're also going to focus
02:24 on providing information by distributing pamphlets and always being available at school to meet
02:30 the demands of our students.
02:36 The two nurses also work outside the school in order to reach other young people who don't
02:40 have access to good health services.
02:43 They talk to them about sex but also other issues like the responsible consumption of
02:47 alcohol or drug abuse.
02:52 We've come to an end of this Girls Off Mute episode.
02:54 We'll be back soon with new stories.
02:56 Bye!
02:57 (upbeat music)
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