Program Is Fighting Teenage Pregnancy

For 17-year-old David Mendez the price of admission to a computer training course included lessons in a male’s responsibility in preventing teenage pregnancy.

“It makes you think about how all your plans would change if you weren’t careful,” Mendez said of Project Amiga’s Male Responsibility for Pregnancy Prevention Program. “You have to decide if being a parent so young is the life you want, or whether you want to be better prepared in life first.”

Since 1989, Project Amiga in South El Monte has educated young people on parental and life skills, especially focusing on women’s health issues. The nonprofit has provided computer classes to teenage mothers for several years, hoping to pull them out of a bleak economic and academic future. In late 2002, Executive Director Irene Portillo decided it was time to turn attention to the male population’s role in teenage pregnancy. Too often, Portillo said, boys and girls are held to different standards, particularly in the Latino community.

“It’s a machismo thing. It’s supposed to be like a badge of honor to see how many girls we can get pregnant,” Portillo said. “A lot of guys feel like, ‘Hey, it’s not my problem,’ and they walk away.”

Mendez said he agreed.

“Guys are treated differently. Girls are always blamed,” he said. “They say, ‘They got pregnant on purpose.’ ”

The problem is aggravated by a family dynamic where parents don’t feel comfortable talking to their children about such issues, Portillo said.

“Especially in the Latino community, we have so many secrets. ‘You don’t talk about this, you don’t talk about that. God will punish you,’ ” Portillo said. “We have a dialogue here that normally you don’t have in the household.”

Most of the teenagers are referred to Project Amiga by schools, correctional facilities or other programs.

The Male Responsibility for Pregnancy Prevention Program includes lessons in sexually communicable diseases, but also tries to convey to the young males the consequences of becoming young parents. The need to be responsible for their child and the mother if they become parents is also communicated.

Project Amiga received a $10,000 grant this year from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign.

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