NEW APP FOR THE YOUTH. About 150 Grade 12 students from various schools in this city gathered during the launch of 'AHlam Na!' at The Mansion Hotel in Iloilo City on Thursday (December 13, 2018). 'AHlam Na!' is a mobile application to strengthen education campaign about adolescent health. (Photo by Cindy Ferrer)
ILOILO CITY -- The Commission on Population 6 (Western Visayas) has launched a mobile application to strengthen the education campaign on adolescent health (AH).
Dubbed “AHlam Na!”, the mobile application aims to provide accurate knowledge on adolescent health and development, as well as adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Some 150 Grade 12 students from various schools in this city gathered during the launch at The Mansion Hotel here Thursday.
The term “AHlam Na!” was derived from young people’s lingo, “Alam na!”, which means something is already confirmed.
The mobile application is a strategy to promote and improve the well-being of the youth, Harold Marshall, director of Popcom-6, said. “There is a need to innovate strategies in meeting with the evolving needs of young people to address their sexual and reproductive health needs to information and services,” he said.
Popcom-6 here has partnered with the Save the Children, Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, and the Iloilo State College of Fisheries to develop the mobile application, which is now downloadable using smartphones.
The mobile application has features like quiz (fact or bluff) on puberty, sexuality and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The results of the quiz could be shared on social media to encourage more young people to download and use the app.
Popcom-6 Assistant Director Rosemarie Hubag recognized that today’s young people are “digitally wired” and the most convenient way possible for them to acquire information that could answer their mind-blowing question, especially about adolescent health, is through the internet or their smartphones.
Hubag said low-level awareness on adolescent sexual and reproductive health-related information lead young people in the region into risky sexual and non-sexual activities, which put their future at risk.
“We cannot afford to see you people fail in life because of misguided truth and wrong information. We have to pull our efforts together,” she said.
With the mobile application, Hubag said they were able to connect with the young people by optimizing the new information technology.
Hubag expressed hope that the mobile app would improve the health-seeking behavior of adolescents in a manner close to their lifestyle. (PNA)
