Youth Taking Action: Sexual and Reproductive Health Education

Imagine you're in high school and you start to notice that more and more of your classmates are getting pregnant. What would you do? Ashoka Youth Venturer José María Mora Luna of Puebla, Mexico, had an answer - organize youth to teach other youth about sexual and reproductive health. At the age of 15 José María started Services for Youth Sexual Education (SESEJ), which has trained more than 2,500 youth through experiential education workshops. At times SESEJ has pushed the envelope in conservative Mexico by engaging youth through sex education videos and demonstrations using dildos and vagina prosthesis. We spoke with José María about empowering fellow youth, work challenges, and the need to shift society's views on sexual and reproductive health.

What inspired you to start SESEJ?

SESEJ was conceived, designed and started in 2004. That was the year my friends and I began our studies in high school. When we entered the school we noticed a large number of pregnant girls! This really worried us because most of them believed that pregnancy sidetracked (sometimes permanently) their plans. We were also shocked that so many of us youth started to become sexually active at such an early age without having sufficient information to prevent unwanted pregnancies as well as the possibility of infection from Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs). This project is based on and inspired by the youth with whom we live on a daily basis, many of whom are our friends, neighbors or even relatives.

Why are schools so ineffective or inefficient in teaching such topics as the importance of knowing more about sexual and reproductive health?

The education system in Mexico is used to censor certain topics related to sexuality. Teachers are not used to openly choosing topics on sexual and reproductive health for fear of retaliation by parents, many of whom think that young people will learn everything we need to know about sexual health in due time. But the question is, when is that time?

Parents, teachers and even religions have a hard time accepting that youth must be well informed now, and not be isolated from the realities we live with from day to day. In many places in the world lots of young people get some kind of infection or die because they lack the information to protect and care for themselves when it comes to their sexual lives.

In many parts of the world reproductive health and sex education can be controversial. Have you experienced any resistance to your work? If so, how have you confronted it?

The resistance we have encountered in our work has mostly been from the schools, by the obstacles that the "older" generation puts in our way. Some teachers do not allow us to develop and carry out the workshops because they have the misconception that we do not have sufficient information to properly inform and empower other young people; how can youth inform and educate other youth? Frankly, we were able to demonstrate that we had the knowledge and skills to work with them, and those same schools ended up recommending us to others. For us, this was a great success!!!

Fortunately, we were able to prove to them that we had the capacity (knowledge and skills) to train other youth, and in most occasions we invited the teachers that doubted our ability to do an "adequate" job to observe our workshop and judge our performance for themselves. As it turned out, all of the schools that had doubted our ability had changed their minds after observing one of our trainings. This cleared the way for us to continue our work!

What do you think needs to happen in our society to achieve a lasting and positive change regarding the way sexual and reproductive health is viewed?

I think the most important step is to open the door to freedom of expression. I also believe in different social groups joining forces. I truly believe that we all have the gift of giving and we all bring positive things that contribute to the different processes that lead to our development and help us grow s human beings and have a better life.

It is important that adults understand and allow us to participate openly in the issues that affect our society, youth are not what the adults view us to be, we are the ones who bring the benefits to all, the ones who innovate and those who believe in change. It is important that adults help us achieve these changes and to forget the bad ideas that they alone have created, we are NOT irresponsible youth, and youth are NOT the future, but one thing I am sure of is that THE YOUTH ARE THE PRESENT AND WE ARE CHANGING THE WORLD.

What are your plans for SESEJ? What are your hopes for the youth that you continue to work with?

As a team I think what interests us most is that other young people participate and get involved in the work that we are developing. We hope to make SESEJ a Civil Society Organization (CSO), while offering more and improved services for youth. We hope to have a strong social impact by contributing to the decrease in the transmission of STDs as well as the reduction of unwanted pregnancies among youth. We also want to motivate the youth to raise their voices and to believe in their own ideas, THE YOUTH ARE AND WILL BE THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE OF OUR SOCIETY!
Get to know other young social entrepreneurs by reading their stories and seeing videos of them in action at http://genvcampaigns.org/

If you are a young person between the ages of 12-20 and want to create positive change in your community join the global movement of young changemakers at http://genv.net/