sesiones educativas de promotores escolares

For the past two weeks, I have been working hard with the youth health promoters giving talks in the high school. The peer health promoters have been visiting every classroom in our high school and teaching, discussing, and promoting healthy lifestyles through the prevention of HIV/Aids, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and unwanted pregnancies. It has been interesting, because I know how “sex-ed” talks to teenagers can be awkward. But I think that the students and teachers have been absorbing what we’ve been discussing and hopefully we’re making a difference. I’ve been having the promoters use non-formal educational techniques so that these talks can be (relatively) fun and interesting and (relatively) un-awkward.

In their regular coursework, there is no mention of sex, sexuality, adolescence, or prevention of pregnancy or STIs. And because the majority of the families are conservative and religious, from what I can tell, parents aren’t really giving “the talk” to their kids. In addition to a relatively high prevalence of STIs reported by the health post, there are also a high number of teen pregnancies in my town. During this school year, three of the girls in the senior class (of 25 students) dropped out because they were pregnant.

In our educational sessions in the classrooms, the adolescents are getting a good opportunity to learn from their own peers about these important themes. We have the permission of the teachers and parents, so we are not imposing any taboo topics. We are able to bring up topics that the kids are obviously curious about (and experimenting with) so that they can be safe and healthy.