A woman reacts in front of a display showing mannequins of pregnant schoolgirls at a shopping mall in Caracas on Wednesday. The display is shocking shoppers and stirring debate over sex education in Venezuela. Two local charities have dressed up three mannequins behind a shop window as girls with bulging stomachs under the blue uniforms used by school children here until age 15. The idea is to draw attention to an adolescent pregnancy rate they say is one of the worst in South America with one girl under-18 becoming pregnant every three minutes and 23 percent of all births recorded in that age category.

Mannequins of pregnant schoolgirls are seen in a shop window at a shopping mall in Caracas on Wednesday. Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters