Young women trapped by dogma and the generation gap... "It?s only a couple of years ago that young people living in and around the Karenni refugee camp at Ban Tractor in Thailand?s Mae Hong Son Province were able to help themselves to free condoms from boxes attached to trees and wayside posts. It was the idea of the camp health department director, Say Reh, who had been growing increasingly concerned about the rising numbers of young unmarried women becoming pregnant and also about the risk of HIV/AIDS in the community. But it was a short-lived idea. Say Reh had to abandon his solo birth-control effort after three months because of strong opposition from many of the camp residents and Catholic and Protestant church ministers. ?Older people here believe that distributing condoms and organizing sex education encourages young people to indulge in sex,? says Say Reh. Although he?s abandoned his free condoms initiative, Say Reh and some of his co-workers still hold occasional sex education classes for the young people of Ban Tractor, under the watchful eye of disapproving elder members of the community. ?The problem is that parents are sensitive on sex issues and many are illiterate, so they don?t know how to educate their children and guard them from unwanted pregnancies,? he says..."