The assistant representative for the United Nations Population Fund in Syria, Omar Bulan, announced the beginning of work to carry out an economic, social and demographic survey in the country, saying that two months ago the National Center for Statistics developed a plan that was expected to begin preliminary work next month and end in March next year.
The Fund held in cooperation with the Information Ministry a workshop for journalists working in local media to inform them of the its recent activities, whether at the level of health, social or youth projects, in addition to the mobile health teams in some provinces and the modern centers that were recently opened. Responding to a question from Al-Watan, Bulan said that the Fund was supporting the National Center for Statistics around carrying out the economic and social survey as it could obtain precise numbers, without going into more details or the mechanisms developed to carry out the noted survey.
For its part, the youth official in the Fund, Reem Bajari, said that the category of Syrian youths, whose ages range between 10 to 24 years old, were 31 percent of the total population, adding that 2.5 million of them were out of school and 5.7 million were in need of education at its various levels in a reference to higher education. In her lecture, Bajari said: We are working to strengthen the capacity of the youth from different social environments by carrying out a program aiming to mobilize youth to strengthen social cohesion in Syria, stressing that this requires building the capacities of the youth from various social environments in the planning and joint execution of multiple projects.
For her part, the reproductive health official at the Fund, Hala al-Khayar, said: The numbers show that 50 percent of all residents in the country are of reproductive age, of them 43 percent are in the youth category from 15 to 24 years. In her lecture, Khayar stressed the need to implement the basics of reproductive health including safe motherhood, medical examination, and consultation before marriage and family planning and protection from diseases and early detection of cancer.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
