Two children's charities set up displays with pregnant schoolgirl mannequins in Venezuela to bring attention to the country's teen pregnancy problem.
The adolescent pregnancy rate in Venezuela is one of the worst in South America, according to Reuters. A girl under 18 will have a child every three minutes and 23 percent of all pregnancies occur in the young age group.
Shoppers at the Caracas mall found the display disturbing. Fundana and Construyendo Futuros sponsored the campaign that shows the mannequins in the traditional schoolgirl outfits - blue polo shirts and black skirts.
"I think it's horrible, awful. If I was a mother, I wouldn't want my child to see that," 18-year-old student Kelly Hernandez told Reuters.
Her friend Auriselvia Torrealba, 20, understood the meaning behind the campaign.
"Yes, it's disturbing to see in a window. But it's the truth. You see pregnant girls all the time on the streets. So this forces you to think about the problem, doesn't it?" Torrealba said.
The campaign will run for the next month and may extend to other malls. The two charities found the outrage an encouraging sign, even in a country that has progressed its education and children's rights over the last 15 years.
"It's amazing seeing people react as they walk by. This is such a taboo subject in Venezuela, we want people to talk about it," Construyendo Futuros president Thalma Cohen told Reuters. "Some people get angry and complain. Others congratulate us."
A United Nations' women's rights group recently expressed "deep concern" about Venezuela's high teen pregnancy rate and maternal mortality, according to Reuters. Women between 15 to 19 years old have a birth rate of 101 per 1000 women. The maternal mortality rate is 92 per 100,000 births.
