Preventing Teen Pregnancy

:   Hearing Mariana

When Marina was six years old, her mom left.  Unable to care for the family by himself, her father moved them to his parents home.  Mariana is now 16 years old and still living with her father, grandparents, brother, and sister in the tiny home.  COVID has disrupted their already challenging lives.  The family’s economic difficulties escalated, causing her aunt and cousin to move in with them.  Mariana had to share a small space with her eighteen-year-old male cousin who has a drug addiction.   This situation significantly increased the tension and despair within her family.  

Marina has a boyfriend, with whom she grew up and spent most of her childhood. He is 17 years old, and both are high school students.  She is unable to spend time with him at home – there was no room for him to visit. Like many other high school students, Mariana is taking school classes online, and often runs out of internet credit.

So many negative influences make everyday living unsettling and highly stressful.  

In the fall of 2020, Mariana discovered Sarahuaro's human development classes.  She has become completely engaged in group and private therapies and continues to get support from the Sarahuaro team.  Intervention has focused on dealing with the extreme effects of poverty amplified by COVID and the demands of high school peer pressures. The Sarahuaro Family Planning program has helped Marianna in raising her sexual awareness, building healthy relationships based on mutual respect, establishing limits, as well as giving her the confidence and knowledge to make an informed and conscious choice when to begin her active sexual life.

Even with all these challenges, she is seeking work to financially help her family and to be a good example for her younger siblings.