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Cross or a Condom

Young boys pass the time in the alleyways of Parola in the Tondo district in Manila, Philippines. Tondo is a section of Manila separated from the rest of the city by a heavily polluted river. It is one of the most densely populated regions of the world with approximately 65,000 people per square kilometer.

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is one of the fastest growing cities on earth and evidence of population pressure is everywhere. Tens of millions of people in the Philippines live in poverty and the country also has one of the highest birth rates in Asia. In this devoutly Catholic country there are moves to introduce a reproductive health bill to provide free contraception. The Church, fearing a breakdown in family values, is fiercely resisting the move, and blames the widespread poverty on bad government rather than population growth.