In this week's assignment on the BBC World Service, Paraguay's schoolgirl mothers.

I'm Linda Presley reporting from a Suncyon on a story some listeners might find upsetting. This is the Casa Rosamaria, quite a grand entrance and it still got up the flags that it had up for the Pope,

red, white and blue for Paraguay, yellow and white, the

paper colours.

And this is a home run by this local Catholic parish for girls who are pregnant or have babies.

Ola, Signora Vera.

Ola, Bui-Mein.

Silsavera has been looking after child mothers for the last 15 years.

Okay, the girls are there, cooking.

It's the 13th birthday of a new resident, so everyone's busy in the kitchen, toddlers playing underfoot.

In a strippy jumper and jeans, rocking her baby on a hip that's hardly there is a girl I'll call

Perler. With translator Ralph Hanna, I ask her how old her son is.

He's a year old.

Okay, and how old are you?

You're 12 years old.

He's a beautiful baby.

Is he naughty?

He's well behaved.

Well behaved, like his mother. Yeah, he's well behaved like me.

Perla's story, pregnant at 10 and mother at 11, isn't a one-off. Last year more than 700 girls aged 14

and under gave birth in Paraguay. That's roughly two a day in a nation of some 7 million

people. In countries where abortion is allowed, the majority

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