Quality education is defined as two interdependent efforts in our work. By providing girls and boys with comprehensive sex education of high quality, we help ensure that the girls can stay in school and get a proper school education. We empower girls to enforce their right to their own bodies and to complete an education.

A report from UNESCO (2018) shows that sex education contributes to reduced risk-taking in sexual matters, increased use of condoms and increased use of contraception. So, when 9 out of 10 Colombian girls cite pregnancy as their main reason to drop out of school, it shows the enormous vacuum and/or quality of sex education given to young girls and boys. Our finetuned education in gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights is not only helping the girls to stay in school and obtain a formal education but is also giving back girls their dignity and right to control their own bodies and fertility. This way, we seek to contribute to raise the number of girls studying in school and other education institutions and thereby achieve higher educational levels for girls in Colombia.

Gender equality is a ground pillar in our work. We work, among other things, for girls to both think and experience themselves as equals with boys and men in both sexual relations, education, families and everyday life. That girls become more aware of their hopes and dreams for their lives, their own rights, their body and sexuality and feel they can protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and with the necessary contraception when having sex with a person they agree to have sex with. We support them in breaking with the fear of being stigmatized and proactively providing contraception.

Gender equality in everyday life and sexual relationships is naturally a vital topic in our SRHR education as we know that teenage pregnancies too often are consequences of extreme male-dominated culture. To break down gender stereotypes, we teach girls and boys to identify and reflect upon machismo culture in everyday life: in traditional family structures, school, language, in their favorite music genres, and interactions with each other. In contrast to many other sex educative organizations that solely focus on equipping girls with information and contraception, we find it crucial to include boys in the fight for equality by engaging them to actively participate by becoming agents of change (read more about how we engage boys to become agents of change).

It is crucial to have the finger on the pulse in gender equality matters and to have access to great advice. We discuss important gender aspects with our Global Goal 5. Advisor, former UN Youth Delegate Denmark, Anja Katrine Søndergaard.

In our work with gender equality, we are inspired by front-running commissions to end inequality such as the UN Women, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Programme of Action, and the Beijing Platform for Action.

We have a strong belief in partnerships, capacity building, and advocacy. We can make a difference by working together to overcome structural and societal determinants of teenage pregnancy.

Through our teach the teachers program, workshops to professionals and parents, and our Local Mamas project, we do capacity building among local resourceful men and women, teachers, pedagogues, and other children professionals. From a long-term perspective, we intend to advocate and inspire the Colombian public school system with our finetuned methods to spread and strengthen our services at local and national levels to get optimal results.

To improve vulnerable girls’ and boys’ life situations in Colombia, and in compliance with SDG 17, we gladly unite with human beings and foundations, so the cooperation provides greater efficiency in achieving this mission. Despite being a new player in the Colombian sex educative field, we are proud of our partnerships who already count schools, colleges, orphanages, local resourceful men and women, leaders, advisors, volunteers, and many others. Our partnerships not only enable us to work in different regions of Colombia, but they are valuable knowledge exchange partners to make sure we keep up with best practices, diversify our workshops, street offices, and digital universe to different cultures and anchor our services to the local communities.

Currently, we are working to establish partnerships with international organizations and NGOs, local and public institutions, and researchers at universities to secure capacity building and interconnected actions in both rural and urban areas.

Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in the world and the second-most unequal country in Latin America. Amplified by a 52-year-long violent and bloody civil war with nearly 8 million internally displaced people, a refugee wave from Venezuela caused by an economic breakdown, and latest the catastrophic coronavirus pandemic that has hit Colombia extremely hard both economically and socially, many families live more poor and vulnerable livelihoods in both cities and in the countryside.

Not only is there a substantial difference between rich and poor, but also between men and women. What leaves women at the very bottom of society (/the food chain) is becoming a mother at an early age as they are forced to give up school and instead become dependent on dangerous and low-income jobs. In addition to becoming pregnant, they are often abandoned by their partners and left as sole providers.

With our comprehensive education in gender equality and SRHR, we contribute to keeping girls in school so that they can get a formal education. According to the UN, girls who complete their education get fewer children, typically increase their income, use more modern technology, and thus create improved living conditions for themselves and their families.

Teenage pregnancy does not only pose health risks and negative socioeconomic consequences for the child-bearer; it is also a huge national problem. Unemployment, inequality, human and drug trafficking, dangerous, low-paid jobs, and poverty are all negative socioeconomic consequences that can derive from or cause teenage pregnancies.

When we teach SRHR, girls and women have better chances and prospects in terms of education, jobs, labor rights, safe working environments, financial security, and equality which all add to Colombia’s national condition and its participation in global development.