[quote=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31762595]One third of the Filipino population is under 15 years old. The country may have found a unique niche in the global economy but current rates of economic growth, though impressive, will not sustain a population projected to double from 100 to 200 million within 30 years. Which is why Jane Judilla may just hold the key to the Philippines economic future. Jane isn't an entrepreneur or a politician, she's a reproductive health worker who spends her days in some of Manila's most squalid slums.
Thanks to a law pushed through by the government last year, she's now permitted to offer the poorest Filipinos free access to condoms, the contraceptive pill, even sterilisation for women who want it. The Catholic Church, which commands the loyalty of 90% of Filipinos, fought the initiative tooth and nail but the clerics lost.
Judilla introduces me to Sheralyn Gonzales, a whey-faced woman of 30 with 10 children and another on the way. I ask Gonzales whether she's happy. "I'll be happy when I've had the baby and can get sterilised," she says. "My eldest has dropped out of school, and we can barely afford to educate the others. I tell my children to have two kids, then use contraception."
If the next generation of Gonzales's heed her advice their country's future is promising. If not, tens of millions of young Filipinos may find themselves stuck in a poverty trap, still dependent on overseas labour as a means of escape.[/quote]