‘CONTRACEPTION is no longer a taboo, get informed’ was the slogan featured on giveaways handed out yesterday, as the Cyprus Family Planning Association (CFPA) kicked off a week of sexual health awareness-raising.
“Young people have a right to access credible and unbiased information on contraception with the goal of preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),” said Margarita Kapsou, President of CFPA’s Board of Directors, at a press conference yesterday, held ahead of World Contraception Day on September 26.
Young people becoming sexually active in “the absence of a systematic and evidence-based Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), constitutes a genuine problem that needs to be addressed”, she added.
Thus, the CFPA aims to provide youth with the necessary know-how to guard their sexual wellbeing.
Meanwhile, the media also had an obligation to promote awareness around this issue, said campaign organiser and Cyprus Obstetrics and Gynecology Society President Dr. Marios Liasides.
He stressed that “the absence of an institutionalised CSE is a problem faced by most European countries, but that does not mean we should not try to rectify this”.
Noting the range of technological and pharmaceutical advances impacting contraception today, Professor Georgios Kreatsas, Vice Rector and Director of the Second Obstetrics–Gynecology of the University of Athens, said “couples have no excuse for unwanted pregnancies”.
“Apart from the pill, which more or less guarantees pregnancy prevention, other methods of contraception, such as condoms, protect both sexual partners from STDs”.
Kreatsas also outlined the benefits of fourth-generation contraception pills, and stressed the great need for timely sex education. It was important, too, he added, for parents to receive the same information as their children.
In closing, CFPA’s Kapsou said it was her firm hope that CSE would be incorporated into upcoming educational reforms.
“The Association has worked very hard on trying to get the state to incorporate CSE in education and has pushed for a formulation of a national policy on the matter,” she said.
“There is still a long way to go until that happens here, but we are hopeful.’
CFPA boasts around 400 active volunteer members and is one of the island’s oldest operating NGOs. It offers support, advice and a free help line by dialing: 1455.
