This workshop is for girls and boys to improve their knowledge in sexual and reproductive health and rights & gender equality from an early age to empower them to make decisions on an informed basis for their sexual health and future lives.

We teach girls and boys from an early age

In Colombia, half of girls and boys have their sexual debut before turning 15 and in stark contradiction, the public Colombian education ‘family planning’ is introduced in schools for young adults at the age of 17. In our opinion, that is at least two years late – and it is obvious how girls can become pregnant when neither girls nor boys are told the basics about their female biology and how to access and use contraception.

Alarming national data shows that 1 out of 5 girls become mothers in their teenage years, which proves that there’s a huge need for more qualified sex education. It also proves the necessity to adapt sexual education to girls and boys from an early age to strengthen their agency in a complex sexual reality before they have their sexual debuts.

We, therefore, find it crucial to start talking about topics around sex and contraception with boys and girls from a young age. That is why our workshops are adapted to children and teenagers from 11 to 19 years old.

From our extensive fieldwork, we have found that a new openness and curiosity towards sex and sexuality is rising among girls and boys in Colombia – even among young adults down to 12 years of age. In our perspective, this puts significant new demands on comprehensive sexual and gender education to keep up with the minds of the young people – and to secure good sexual health and prevent teenage pregnancy.

We adapt our workshops to the target group
We offer 4 to 6-hours workshops to girls and boys in schools, institutions, colleges, and NGOs all over Colombia. As we work across the country, we are acutely aware that girls and boys depending on age, geography, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity are in very different life situations and can have equally different perspectives on topics as sexuality and gender.

For that reason, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all sex education – and particularly not in Colombia where rich and diverse cultures and perspectives on sex vary a lot from Bogotá to Cali, and from urban to rural areas. Our teaching is naturally adapted to the different age groups and maturity levels, but also ethnic and cultural origins. We talk about love, sexual health, and sexual relationships as a natural part of life. Our educators are skilled psychologists who establish good and trustful relations and secure a room filled with trust and safety before going into sensitive topics.

We discuss sex, consent, contraception, and challenge gender roles in reggaeton

In our workshops, we come across many topics such as sex and relationships, sexual health and contraception, sexual orientation, self-care, consent, boundaries, respect, gender identity, and love. We find it important to go through all contraceptive methods with explanations of why it is important to use them as well as how to access and use them. We bring different contraceptive methods to our workshop so that the participants can see and feel them first-hand. Furthermore, we address sexual diseases and how to avoid them.

We go in-depth with the female and male bodies and the menstrual cycle. What happens during the sexual arousal of girls and boys is naturally an important topic as well. Through our research among teenagers in Colombia, we discovered that when girls learn about their bodies and biology, they become more aware of their own sexual desires and boundaries, which helps them express them to their sex partners. In our workshops, we address equality and consent in sexual relations and provide tools for both girls and boys to express and respect sexual boundaries.

We discuss gender roles – in general, but also in sexual relationships. How to show mutual respect such as taking responsibility for using a condom is highly debated in our teenage workshops.

Together with the boys and girls, we also reflect upon how industries such as porn and reggaeton influence perceptions on sex and roles in sexual relationships. We identify patterns of the extreme male-dominated culture machismo, and together we reflect on the devastating consequences the culture can have for especially girls, but also boys. Our most sincere ambition for girls and boys is to fully understand what it means to decide over their own bodies and to be able to act it out. We see that more boys show interest in female biology, which motivates them to show more interest in giving girls pleasure, but also to care for her and make sure she doesn’t become pregnant. This is naturally an important tool for us to motivate the boys to use good contraception and act with gender equality.

Furthermore, we address common taboos and myths about sex, and we make room for anonymous questions. These are very important to discuss as myths and majority misunderstandings are very powerful and can have devastating consequences. Some of the examples that we often hear are, boys always want to have sex and boys cannot control their sexual needs. These are examples of false and stereotypical gender narratives that leave girls feeling obliged to obey their boyfriends’ sexual needs at all times. And it leaves boys feeling wrong, if they don’t always want to have sex and, even worse, it may result in boys sexually violating girls without their consent.

Other myths about girls are that girls do not have the same sexual needs as boys, and girls can’t get the same satisfaction as boys. One can easily imagine how this narrative can limit a girl’s expectations and experiences with sex, as well as her exploration of her sexuality and body.

Danish methods adapted to Colombian culture

Traditional Colombian education in family planning is clinical, theoretical, and explained in an authoritative one-way communication where children are passively listening. In stark contrast,

our teaching stimulates debate and reflection, so that the young participants can use their new knowledge in future situations with increased awareness and gender respect. They will increase their sexual agency and be better equipped with coping strategies to set boundaries and make informed decisions on a basis of knowledge. Finally, we motivate girls and boys to participate in selected roleplay activities and dilemmas to incorporate their individual worldviews, which increase the cognitive impact and our workshop’s usefulness.

Teenage mothers tell school girls: ”It’s tough to become a mother!”

Teenage mothers are very important assets when teaching young girls and boys about the risks of becoming pregnant as a teenager. In their authentic role as teenage mothers, they have crucial experiences and lessons that girls and boys can relate to.

When we invite a teenage mother to teach with us on our workshops, she explains typical perceptions about sex and relationships, that can lead to teenage pregnancies, similar to how she became a mother at an early age. She stresses how important it is to protect oneself when having sex, and she is a first-hand witness to demonstrate the consequences of teenage motherhood; school dropout, hard work and low income with risky work conditions, boyfriends abandoning their responsibilities, and dreams that are postponed if not canceled for good. These young teenage mothers know how extremely important they are to us, and they feel empowered by passing on their experiences and being able to help other girls.

Integrating our digital universe in our workshops

When our digital universe is launched, it will be integrated into our workshops and teaching material. Hogar de Esperanza is proud of designing holistic and coherent efforts and by integrating digital technology tools into our workshops, we create a full-circle experience where girls and boys can find more information and some answers in our website or app after the workshop has ended.

We include parents in our workshops

In Colombia, teenage mothers are very often daughters of teenage mothers. To break the social pattern, we invite parents to our workshops to become aware of their significant role in their daughters’ and sons’ lives. In our experience, it is a game-changer when parents realize the importance of talking about sex and other personal topics with their children. Not only will they prevent hazardous sexual behavior of their children, but also become more attentive and supportive in other aspects of their children’s lives and dreams.

Teach the teachers program
Our teach the teachers program is a program, we offer professionals such as teachers, pedagogues, psychologists, and social workers. Here, we explain how we work with sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality, and we offer learning material that we use in our workshops to children and teenagers. The program is a part of our capacity-building efforts – which means we build capacity on local forces so that teachers can offer students the same quality SRHR education, as we can provide. When we provide teachers with our knowledge and material, it enables us to spread our methodologies and approaches with the result that we prevent even more teenage pregnancies around in Colombia.