Lina Osofsky
913603947
5/16/17
Loation Daughters
Teen pregnancy was an increasing problem in the second generation Laotian immigrant community. “Laotian teen women have one of the highest teen birth rates. ¼ sexually active teens will get an STD before the age of 21 and half of all HIV infections happen before the age 25” (122). This problem is mostly caused by the lack of education on the topic. If a teenage girl happens to get pregnant, her parents would advise her to keep it and marry the boy immediately “in order to save face for the girl’s family” (120). I think this is a very ineffective solution especially if teen pregnancy is so abundant in their community. The group APEN helped build a safe space for under-educated teenage girls. It was a place where they provided sex-education, learned the pro’s and con’s of having a baby as a teenager, and were taught that they had options in life. APEN wanted to slow teen pregnancy by having the girls “set future-oriented life goals” (122). Instead of pushing women on welfare (which is what some of the parents were doing); they taught the girls that to be a good citizen you should be an active participant in the political process -- basically be a leader and active shaper in their community.
An issue within the first generation Laotion community of women was the exposure to the environmental toxins while in Thailand. This also affected the second generation because the mothers were starting to develop cancer -- which took an emotional toll on the family AND because the daughters could have been exposed to the toxins as well while they were still inside their mothers. They believed that this was infringing their rights as a woman because it was lessening their chance of having a baby.
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