| Abstract: | The escalating HIV/AIDS crisis in Cambodia underscores the importance of reproductive health programs aimed at adolescents. Although the Cambodian Government has not developed a strategy specifically aimed at reaching youth, it has initiated several related health promotion and HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Such programming is especially urgent in light of rapid economic changes in Cambodia and the growing influence of the mass media on urban youth. An in-country paper prepared by a staff member of the Youth Department of Cambodia's Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports stressed the importance of four factors: 1) designation of young couples as a target for birth spacing campaigns and services, 2) realistic HIV/AIDS educational messages in the mass media, 3) incorporation of traditional practices in adolescent reproductive health campaigns, and 4) greater sensitivity to youth culture and habits. |
