Background
Misleading information, limited sexual education and inhibited attitudes towards sex leaves many adolescents in Bangladesh poorly informed about their own sexuality, health and physical well-being. In the transition from childhood to adulthood, this group lacks information about reproductive health and sexuality – making them vulnerable to unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse and gender based violence. The general silence on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and lack of formal SRHR education also means that many adults, teachers and service providers find it difficult to discuss these issues with young people.

About the project:
This project was created to empower adolescents with correct and adequate SRHR information, by developing the capacity of teachers and implementing a comprehensive sexuality education program for 42 students at the Porabari School in Gazipur district, Bangladesh.

Results
By training teachers on SRHR and youth friendly facilitation and introducing students to a fact-based, non-judgemental online and offline sexual education curriculum, this project contributed to a significant improvement of the students’ knowledge about issues like puberty, contraceptives, STIs, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. Part of the project was also about increasing young peoples’ access to affordable SRHR services, such as contraceptives and safe abortion. Health workers were trained to provide youth-friendly services and the students were given health cards to access the youth-friendly health clinic and introduced to the support and services offered there.

By the end of this project the Porabari School management were determined to continue the SRHR education programme and use their skills and experience to keep providing future students with a comprehensive sexuality education to help them make informed decisions.

Year: 2016