Local Mamas are resourceful women in the girls’ own neighborhood, who empower girls to decide over their own body and fertility. Local Mamas offer safe spaces, where girls and boys can ask about sex, taboos and get advice or a condom.

Local Mamas teach girls to use contraception and stay in school
Our Local Mamas project will be street offices, a café, or private houses which all are safe places where girls and boys can drop in after school and have confidential chat with a local mama.

The local mamas are resourceful women, who have grown up in areas where poverty, abuse, sexual violence, and teenage pregnancies are common. Their life experiences make them perfect role models and mentors to help girls and boys strengthen their awareness of their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The local mamas are also naturally authentic when discussing romantic ideas about teenage parenthood; school dropout, jobs with low income and terrible work conditions, boyfriends who break their promises and abandon the teenage mother, stigmas, and exclusion from parents and society as well as dreams that are postponed if not canceled for good.

Young girls can identify with these experienced women, and local mamas neither judge nor exclude but support the girls to make healthy choices for their lives and future. Local Mamas will also discuss gender equality and motivate boys to show responsibility and use a condom in sexual relationships.

Sex is taboo which is why parents ignore important talks with their daughters

“I never spoke with my mom about how to have sex and use condoms. We do not have this trust between us”, Tatiana said. She was pregnant with her first child when she was 13.

Tatiana’s relationship with her mother is very common and explains one of the most important reasons why girls become pregnant as preteens and teenagers.

Girls and boys are naturally curious about sex and love, but the mothers and fathers are caught in a devastating misunderstanding – that if they talk with their daughters about sex and contraception, it is similar to encouraging them to have sex.

Reality shows the opposite. When girls and boys receive comprehensive teaching in sexual and reproductive health and rights, they make more responsible choices in sexual matters.

Combined with the parents’ strong belief that if they ignore talking about sex and contraception, their daughters will not have sex, the Catholic church preaches that sex before marriage is a sin – and using condoms is a sin. Therefore, girls are left ignorant and powerless – and easy prey for older boys and men who want unprotected sex.

Local mamas will change ignorance to knowledge, reflection, and agency. The women will advocate for our workshops in SRHR (project 2) and gender equality (project 3) in their local areas. They will also introduce our upcoming digital universe to girls and boys (project 1), who can exploit and find knowledge and tools in privacy and learn how to deal with sexuality, contraception, and relationships in real life. And also, how to approach doctors or drugstore sales assistants who refuse to provide contraception to these proactive girls – and thereby assert their right to decide over their own bodies and control when they want to get pregnant and with whom.

Local mamas can help young people to break the negative circle of social heritage, inequality, and poverty. Our Local Mamas communities fill out information and social gaps from schools, families, the church, and society in general. They are recruited and trained by Hogar de Esperanza’s Colombian professional psychologists to be fully capable of building safe and trusting communities to provide the right support, guidance, and self-help tools for children and teenagers.

We are seeking funding for our Local Mamas project in urban and rural areas.

Insufficient sex education and doctors refusing to prescribe contraception causes teen pregnancies

The Catholic religion has a powerful grip on the poor population in Colombia and is a significant reason why sex is taboo and something that people don’t talk about. Sex education in schools is inadequate and not up to date and is often introduced years after the teenagers have had their sexual debut.

Our research has also uncovered how some doctors are reluctant to prescribe contraceptive methods to girls, and the result is unprotected sex and teenage pregnancy. When girls go to the drugstore to buy contraception, the shop assistant sometimes refuses to sell contraception and damages their reputation in public. Local people will gossip and girls experience that they are called prostitutes just because they try to take care of themselves.

All our projects deal with ignorance, taboos, and real-life situations and provide awareness and tools to girls’ and boys’ different life arenas during their day in school, their cell phones, and their local community.