No Apologies

Just sat through a presentation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, highlighting the impact of a program that encourages teenagers to make wise decisions in regards to sex and relationships. Ultimately, it is designed to protect kids from some of the potential repercussions of unwanted pregnancies, STDs, reputation, etc, by encouraging them to wait until they are married. Hard to do in our sex-saturated, media dominated world? Absolutely. Possible? Yes. Reliable? Yes. Might sound like a gimmick, but it's not. More than 2.5 million young people have gone through the program. Recently, from a longitudinal study completed in Malaysia, between 2003 and 2007, 91% of all kids who made a pledge to abstain have continued to keep their commitment. Given the small amount of financial resources put into educational programs that promote abstinence, it seems unjust that they cannot obtain the same amount of funding available that goes to programs that see abstinence as a waste of time.