Dolls are not just childs play for participants in the Babies Project


Home
In a bid to help youngsters protect themselves against sexual diseases and unwanted pregnancies, a group called Community Health South London is running a series of educational initiatives. One of these is called the ‘Babies Project.’ It sets out give young people a real sense of what bringing up a baby is all about by giving them a life-like doll to look after 24 hours a day. Just like a real baby, the doll cries and needs feeding and changing, night and day.

The project manager at Community Health South London is Michael Hamilton who is at pains to point out, ‘We’re not necessarily trying to put people off having babies. But we do want them to realise the full responsibility involved in having a child.’

Mr Hamilton launched the Babies Project following a tour of local schools a couple of years ago which revealed frightening levels of sexual ignorance among the children he talked to. ‘At the moment, there’s a major problem in the area with teenage sexual health and pregnancies. Unless things change, it’s inevitable that something far more serious will kick in.’

In Mr Hamilton’s area – Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham – the number of teenage pregnancies is twice that of the national average. According to recent reports the highest numbers overall, are found in Sunderland, followed closely by Newcastly-under-Lyme, Manchester, Bolton and Motherwell. Bromley in south east London represents the lowest.

Powered By Traffic Booster Absolute News Manager Plug-in by Xigla Software

This article has been moved here