Have you ever taught sex ed to a room full of teenagers or
adults?
Have you ever done it in a foreign language and/or in a
culture totally different from your own?
Just imagine…
Before moving to Peru I had never taught sexual education in
my life and quite frankly I was mortified to do so. During Peace Corps training
before moving to Huallanca, they taught us how to teach sex ed to youth and it
terrified me because I knew I was going to have to do it and I didn’t want to.
I actually hate public speaking, let alone public speaking about sex…in
Spanish. When they taught us how to teach sex ed to youth, I though “How will I
ever be able to do this in real life?!”
Looking back on how scared I was to teach sex ed is now very funny because it’s the main thing that I do here in Peru and I am so
comfortable with it now. Now I can talk about safe sex practices to youth and
adults like I am talking about the weather. But it definitely didn’t happen
over night!
I definitely didn’t
start teaching sex ed classes in Huallanca right away. The Peace Corps highly discourages
teaching sexual education during your first year of service. Why you ask? Well
for many reasons. The main reason is because it’s first very important to gain
the trust of your students and community over time before you start teaching
sex ed. Imagine if some strange white girl showed up to a small town in the
middle of the mountains of Peru and just started teaching people about sex ed...the locals may be astounded and offended and probably wouldn't take to heart what this strange foreigner was saying. Sex is a highly taboo topic in Peru, partly
because it’s a very passive culture and also partly because Peru is a very
catholic country.
While sex is a very highly taboo topic, every year there are
dozens and dozens of unplanned teen pregnancies just in our small mountain
town. Teen pregnancy is fairly common all over Peru because of the lack of
sexual education, but it’s even more common than normal in Huallanca because of
all the nearby mines. Huallanca is a mining town which means that we are the
closest town to the biggest mine in Peru as well as several other large mines.
Mines attract working men, whom on their days off like to come down to
Huallanca to hang out, eat, drink, and go out dancing. And unfortunately these
men like to sleep with young girls in Huallanca, often causing unwanted
pregnancies.
Ask any person who lives in Huallanca and they will tell you
that the biggest social problem is the high amount of teen pregnancies.
Everyone knows it’s a big problem, but nobody wants to do anything about it.
Why does nobody want to do anything about? Because that would require actually
talking about sex which most Peruvians are terrified of. Also, people would
have no idea what to say because most adults here have little to no knowledge about HIV, STDs, or birth control methods.
So guess why two Peace Corps Volunteers were sent to
Huallanca?...Yep-to teach sexual education in a sustainable manner and do all
we can to help lower the teen pregnancy rate. But like I said, I didn’t start
teaching sexual education right away. For my first 8 months in site, I taught
many other things. This allowed me to get a respectable reputation in Huallanca
and to gain trust as a teacher. Most of the students and teachers know me, know
my teaching styles, and know that they can trust me which is important since I
am not from Huallanca nor from Peru.
I’ve found that since my students have been oppressed from
ever being able to talk about sex with an adult, they are EXTREMELY curious!
They love learning about sex ed and they always have so many questions. They
approach me outside of the class room and ask when I am going to enter their
classroom to teach them more, and they even approach me to ask personal
questions about sex ed. I love that they feel they can trust me and that they ask me so many
questions! I teach them about birth control methods, correct condom use, the names of the reproductive organs, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, abstinence, etc.
I am not only teaching youth about sexual education, but I
am also teaching parents and teachers. One of my main projects as a Peace Corps
Volunteer is to implement a strong sexual education program in the local
schools that will continue on even after I am no longer serving in Huallanca.
This means that I am training teachers how to teach sex ed to their students
and how to talk to students about sex so that they can teach sex ed sessions
without me. I am in the process of putting together a sexual education manual
for the teachers as well. Teaching parents about sex ed is also very important-like
I said, most adults in Huallanca have little to no knowledge about birth
control methods, STIs, HIV/AIDS, etc. I am also teaching parents how to openly
communicate with their youth about sex. Not only youth, but adults are also
very curious about sex ed since they have so little knowledge.
Most people in the community are very content that I am
teaching sex ed and I think it’s because they know that it’s very necessary.
I’ve only had a few negative comments about it. Sexual education can be a very
controversial topic even in the United States. A teacher here in Huallanca once
told me: “Teenagers are very curious at their age and teaching them about sex
will only make them want to do it. If you don’t teach them about sex, it won’t futher their curiosities and they won’t do it.”
I calmly responded and explained to him that we live in a world where technology and
the internet dominate everything. If we as educators don’t teach our youth
about sex then they will learn about it incorrectly from movies, the radio,
television, pornography, and the internet.
Something that was once a big fear of mine is now a big
passion. I never ever thought I would hear myself say that I am passionate
about teaching sexual education. But I am, very much so. I am passionate about
it because I feel like I am empowering my students to take control of their
futures by choosing to avoid unwanted pregnancies, STIs, and HIV/AIDS. Sex is a
part of life and every human being has the right to learn about sexual health
and education to be able to make smart decisions for their bodies and well
being.
Knowledge = power!
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| Correct condom use demonstrations |
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| Correct condom use demonstrations |
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| Tabeling a correct condom use demonstration at the high school. |
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| Our weekly sex ed group in the health center |
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| Our weekly sex ed group in the health center |
I didn't even know all the correct names of the reproductive organs in English...but I had definitely to learn all the correct names in Spanish so that I could teach it to my students.
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| Teaching the kids the reproductive organs. |
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| Teaching the kids the reproductive organs. |
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| Working with one of my best counter parts- a teacher who wants to work with me to teach sex ed to his students (this is something really hard to come by here). |
