Sexuality Education

Hello there again RANTers! (Is this getting annoying or what?)

We’ve just finished our second day here at the First National Consultative Workshop On Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education In the Philippines. And again, my brain is R-E-A-L-L-Y getting SATURATED as of the moment. I think I need to sleep for twenty-four hours as soon as I get home. (*phew!*)

Day 2

So here we are, discussing (rather than R-A-N-T-I-N-G like what I’m doing) things on how can we educate the younger generation regarding S-E-X.

After breakfast, we had another round of workshop in which we roamed the function room and had a little discussion on each organization that has programs regarding sex education. The organizations who presented are: BAtang Laging Umiiwas sa Tiyak na Impeksyon (BALUTI), Foundation for Adolescent Development (FAD), Youth Friendly Services for Young People Sexuality in the Philippines (YES4YES), Family Planning Organization in the Philippines (FPOP), POPDEVED, and Zone One Tondo Organization (ZOTO).

What we did there is that we get ideas from each organization to come up with a unified framework to implement the sex education part of the Reproductive Health Law (R.A. 10354).

(I’m beginning to say B-O-R-I-N-G things again, am I? Bear with it. This is pretty long. *wink!*.)

Then right after we G-O-B-B-L-E-D, Dr. Juanita A. Basilio, MPH had a little discussion on the contents of the RH Law. Let me state what part of the law that caused this brain-withering consultation…

“Sec. 14 Age- and Development-Appropriate Reproductive Health Education

The State shall provide age-and development appropriate reproductive health education to adolescents which shall be taught by adequately trained teachers in formal and nonformal education system and integrated in relevant subjects such as, but not limited to, values formation; knowledge and skills in self-protection against discrimination; sexual abuse and violence against women and children and other forms of other gender based violence and teen pregnancy; physical, social, and emotional changes in adolescents; women’s rights and development and responsible parenthood: Provided, that flexibility in the formulation and adoption of appropriate course content, scope, and methodology in each educational level or group shall be allowed only after consultations with parents-teachers-community associations, school officials, and other interest groups. The Department of Education (DepED) shall formulate a curriculum which shall be used by public shools and may be adopted by private schools.” (*phew!* That’s a L-O-T of typing.)

Now that we have a background why this consultation is done, let me continue with my R-A-N-T-I-N-G. Ahihihihi!

Then here comes the THIRD WORKSHOP (I feel like I’m already O-V-E-R-W-O-R-K-E-D here. Geez!).

What we did here is we discussed on how we can educate particular groups of people on sex. And the groups of people our group had identified are…

Young Parents

Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgenders, Queers, & Intersexuals (LGBTQI)

Out of School Youth

All of the participants in the group had common grounds on how we can educate them about sex and stuffs related to it. And these common grounds are…

Theatrical Play and Film Showing

Have these groups of people attend a theatrical play or watch a film which has a theme on teenage pregnancy, STIs, or young parenthood. Maybe just a simple show in which these groups of people can enjoy and learn at the same time. (Am I making sense here?)

Training of Trainers (TOT)

Let the licensed professionals have a special training on reproductive health teaching or reproductive health consultation.

It’s as simple as that.

Case closed.

Caricatures or Animation

Now, this is the one thing I presented to them. Recently, before the consultation happened, I found a picture on Facebook that has a theme of POKEMON. Instead of “Gotta catch’em all” theme that we’ve been brought up to (Is it just me or am I making myself sound like O-L-D here?), they changed the caricature into “Don’t catch them all. STDs”. And I found another picture on GOOGLE (Where almost all assignments nowadays come from.) a Pokemon named “CondomON”. It’s simple yet catchy to the eye, isn’t it?

I’m just hoping that the Department of Education would put these in the curriculum or at least have a separate program for it.

Right now, I’m really getting distracted by the movie I’m currently watching on Disney Channel: “George of the Jungle”.

I’m in need of R-I-C-E here!!!