Helping the Underprivileged Community
Puberty with Dignity
Malaysia has no formal comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programme despite recording 51 underage pregnancies daily (amounting to more than 18,600 cases per year), without accounting those that go unrecorded. Data from the 2012 Global School-based Student Health Survey, along with the fact that 50.4% of respondents admitted to having sex before the age of 14, is shocking. The country has seen a corresponding increase in baby dumping, unsafe abortions and infanticide. Not even rape victims are protected in the aftermath of their trauma, with many married off to their rapists so the babies they bear may be ‘legitimate’. It is estimated that 39-45% of the fathers to teenage pregnancies are adult males, with 80% of these abusers being someone who was known to the victim and who groomed them for the purpose of sexual abuse, according to a 2015 report from the Royal Malaysian Police. Victims often did not know they’d been wronged. Here are the current statistics around underage sexual activities in Malaysia:1. Under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017. It is an offence to have sex with teens below the age of 18. In Malaysia 7.3% of the teens have unknowingly committed this offence;2. A study from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) revealed that only 12% of respondents said they used condoms. Out of that 7.3 per cent, (21:11) had multiple sexual partners;3. An estimated three million girls aged 15 to 19 undergo unsafe abortions every year. Uncertified, underground, traditional abortions prone to further health risk and excruciating pain. And, worldwide, one in five girls have given birth by the age of 18. It has been reported that in Malaysia, an average of 18,000 teenagers get pregnant each year.Listed are the problems we addressed with the SPOT Programmes since 20151. Underage sexual activities;2. Child grooming (online and offline);3. Child sexual abuse (1 out of 4 girls and 1 out of 6 boys in Malaysia have suffered some form of sexual abuse);4. Teenage pregnancy (51 girls fall pregnant everyday in Malaysia);5. Level of STI among young people.