Canadian charity Rubens Shoes supports a school in the Dominican Republic called Centro Educativo Toribio. After having a 12-year-old student get pregnant by a much older man, they decided they wanted a reproductive health program to encourage kids to delay pregnancy, learn more about their bodies and how to protect themselves, and have the knowledge to make healthy choices about their sexual health.
I went to their school to train 10 teachers in the curriculum I wrote called “BodyTalk”. The BodyTalk curriculum is an interactive, youth-centered, culturally-sensitive teaching manual used to educate youth ages 8 to 19 on sexual and reproductive health in restrictive, low-resource settings. The 9-week curriculum involves lessons on human sexuality including anatomy, puberty and hygiene, healthy relationships, communication and consent, gender equity, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, pregnancy and teen parenthood, and contraception. The activity-based lessons can be incorporated into classrooms or implemented in full at schools, youth centers, health centers, or a variety of other settings.
For this project, I conducted a teacher training, taught a sample workshop for older youth ages 12-15, trained staff on program monitoring and evaluation, conducted initial assessments of the youths’ sexual health knowledge, and assisted with the launch of the new program, observing new facilitators and providing feedback. The school is currently conducting two classes with a total of 22 students, with plans to offer the class each semester and to eventually expand to older youth.
students practice using consent
