THE DEPARTMENT of Education and Department of Health office in Calabarzon launched a program to address teenage pregnancy and the spread of human immunodeficiency virus.

TEENdig Kabataan seeks to empower kids and advance their long-term health and wellness. TEENdig means “Trustworthy – Engaging – Encouraging – Nurturing a place for adolescents, and Dignity.”

“The concept of this project is to complement the DepEd’s Teen Health Kiosk, we are not going to compete, but complement. The objective is to be an advocate where the children can give information about health to their friends, so they will not have a hard time sharing,” Dr. Jaira Evangelista, one of the program’s coordinators from the DOH, said.

“Aside from reproductive health, we will also tackle mental health, because the youth are having a hard time sharing to seniors or authorities, so the objective is to empower them, that they have someone or safe spaces to share their own problems,” she added.

To sustain the project, nurses will be assigned in schools in a selected congressional district in Calabarzon.

Topics on cancer awareness and healthy lifestyle that can prevent people from getting noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes will also be discussed, Evangelista said.