Who is best equipped to train our youths in sex ed?

I am the founder of The Cup.org that targets underprivileged adolescent girls. After having reached 20 000 girls and more than 10 000 boys since 2015 with our holistic methodology I have written a couple of short blogs/articles on LinkedIn about lessons learned since start to share experiences and thoughts and to get feedback from others. Strongly believe that together we can do more. Comments are welcome. Please see first article below published in September.

It is time we start talking about who is best equipped to educate underprivileged adolescents in menstrual hygiene, reproductive health and other sensitive stigmatized subjects.

Is it teachers in schools that many suggest that should be empowered, trained and given manuals?

There are various reasons why I do not think this is the way forward.

One of the root problems is the general gap that exists between the older and younger generation in most places. Teachers and parents don’t feel comfortable talking about these topics and children of course pick up this tension at early age. This could be a way taboos are being inherited from generation to generation. 

Another reason is of course the power relationship that exists between a teacher and her or his pupil. Teachers don’t only judge, give grades and homework but in many challenging environments are using corporal punishment. We often get anonymous written questions in our trainings where girls are asking if the menstrual cup they have been given can fall out when their teachers are beating them. This leads to another question we receive anonymously which is why teachers like beating girls on their buts. Unfortunately sexual abuse by male teachers is common in schools. We have encountered a few female teachers too but not many.

I think all of the above reasons make teachers far from the best to educate girls and boys about sex and related subjects. They lack one of the most important ingredients: trust. 

Menstrual hygiene or reproductive health education is an opportunity to identify and support youths who are in need of counseling or health care. Being a teenager is for many to feel or be completely alone. You can almost be sure that in every training event there are some girls (boys too) that have been raped, are or have been under going incest, are having infections due to overuse of pads for too many hours or have been using of unhygienic solutions. Not to talk about HIV/ STI´s and teenage pregnancy that is rampant among girls in Sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnancies that too many times lead to super unsafe abortions resulting in death. Challenges they many times have never mentioned to anyone.

Teaching is not only about giving information; it is the art of communication which includes ensuring the youths receive, understand and digest it. For clear communication trust is key, which can open up for identifying the children that are in need of help. I believe teachers who come from similar backgrounds as the youths and who have first hand knowledge of their challenges are best equipped to support and educate adolescents and create trust. Adults who are close in age; so called role models or peer educators.

I have developed a Trainer-to-Trainer workshop to empower young adults to become excellent teachers and be able to support the youths holistically during and after the trainings. The education of the teachers is key; they have to be convinced, understand and the topics demystified as they are subjected to the same. The approach with peer educators really works. In my next post I will write more about how our comprehensive adolescent education methodology works, how it can be scaled and more. Thank you for reading