Talking to Youth About Sex

To talk to young people about sex one must break down the barriers of silence created by religious and cultural prohibitions, change misinformed assumptions based on a lack of knowledge, create openness to the fluidity of young people's sexual identities, talk about sex in euphemisms in public broadcasts without really talking about sex so to speak, create innovative ways of communicating these messages, incorporate "life skills" training, and base program efforts on research most preferably done by youth for youth. Carolyn Sobritchea, the Director of Women's Studies and a Professor at the University of the Philippines, discussed the results of research that young people have been doing in the Philippines. Their research results dispel previous gender categories that were created by UN questionnaires and adopted as a way to understand young people's identities, and she explained that there is no easy lumping of the multiple sexual and gender identities of young people. They have found that young people are not bound by these categories and that their identities are fluid and their concepts of selves multiple. Carolyn believes that there is a need to revise core messages to accommodate the multiple identities of youth in the Philippines. The challenge is to convince the decision-making powers that there has been such a radical change.

Wing-Sie Chen (UNICEF), Nepal, discussed their initiatives to communicate with young people. Their efforts to "chat" to the largest number of young people through "edutainment" are driven by the concentrated nature of the epidemic in Nepal. Cheng stressed that the effectiveness of their education/entertainment programs is based on "sound research" and that it has been extremely important for them to understand their audience. Silence is broken in Nepal for young people through the radio broadcasts of Ôchatting with my best friend' where young people answer the dilemmas and questions raised from the over 500 letters that are received weekly from other young people. The social issues that are raised in the letters are also addressed on Kathmandu, a TV drama show, and through direct outreach in schools, and through out-of-school programs and clubs. Young people talk about sex over the air while not using the word "sex" and young people have a way of discussing about "that thing" so other young people understand what they are talking about - they "chat it out and dispel the myths".

Thawatchai Pachum, with Medicin Sans Frontiers in Thailand works as a sex educator with school children between the ages of 14 - 17 from thirty schools in Bangkok. He focuses on issues around people living with HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, and drug use and about "being gay". Oanh Kim Nguyen's research in Vietnam outlined that increasing premarital sexual behaviours, low condom use, low knowledge of sexual health and HIV/AIDS, and gender disparities that affect negotiation skills make young people vulnerable to sexual health issues and HIV infection. The abortion rates in Vietnam were staggering, with 1,520,000 reported abortions in 1996 and in 1997, and 30 percent of all abortions were by young unmarried women.These rates clearly reflected the desperate need and urgency to address the barriers that inhibit the discussion of sex and reproductive health issues for young people in Vietnam.