Sex Ed

October 2012

Amber and I planned on giving 2 sexual education charlas in my last week in site. 

One of the greatest strengths about Peace Corps is the Volunteer made manuals.  Pueblo Sano, Vida Sana (Healthy Village, Health Life) is a composition of sex ed and gender seminars.  We planned 2 days of charlas on:  STDs, HIV/AIDS, how to use a condom, the risks of teenage pregnancy, lightly touched family planning and contraceptives.  The maestros told us that they would like us to talk about sexually transmitted diseases to their third graders and up.  This may sound way too young by North American standards, but it is necessary here where girls get pregnant as early as 13 years old.

We started out by explaining what STDs are and showed the kids pictures of various STDs I downloaded from the CDC.  They learned what the definition of STD is and how one contracts them.  We then went into talking about HIV/AIDS.  The manual has a creative activity to explain what HIV/AIDS is.

The main character is the Cuerpo Sano, who was played by the maestro.  Kids formed a circle around them, presenting the healthy body’s defense system.  Other kids were given cards as various diseases.  The healthy body first gets attacked by a cold, and the defense system is able to battle against the cold.  But then the body gets infected with HIV.  The body then gets attacked by other common diseases, and the HIV character pulls away the defense system.  Eventually, after the defense system is weakened to just one student, the HIV turns into AIDS.  We then taught the kids the various forms of contracting HIV. 

We ended by telling them that they can prevent STD and HIV/AIDS. 

·      Practice abstinency

·      If you are sexually active, be with only one partner at a time

·      Use a condom

To elaborate the last point, we demonstrated how to use a condom on a platano!  Yes, it was funny and awesome.

The 2^nd day was about teenage pregnancy.  We started off with a game called A Mi Me Gusta…where the kids got in a circle.  One person started by saying their name and acted out an activity they liked to do.  For example, “..me llamo Moises, y a mi me gusta…jugar futból (insert action).”  The person next to you, then introduces you, does your action, introduces themselves, does their action, so on and so forth.  I wrote down all the things the kids liked to do:  play soccer, play dolls, fly kites, etc.  We then asked them, “If you had kids when you were 15, would you be able to do these activities?”

This led us into talking about how once you have kids, you have more responsibilities, and you lose the time to do the things you love to do.