Proyecto Educasex Colombia

In Colombia it is estimated that 73.63% of schools did not train the teaching team in education for pregnancy prevention, and 84.84% did not train in HIV prevention education in the last two years. Also, 33.43% of schools had not developed or updated the contents related to comprehensive sexuality education in the last two years. This translates into a significant increase in the rates of adolescent pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and gender-based violence in the young population and with a vulnerability focus.

It ensures the integral training of young Colombians, including placing them in the social reality where the lack of prevention, promotion and detection in sexual health, concerns us. It is based on peer education, so it consists of training activities for educasextors (volunteers), which will provide comprehensive sex education to young people from the regions where they have a presence through recreational activities such as games, dramatisation, dancing, singing, etc. In addition, the activity will be developed by changing condoms for cigarettes, where young smokers will have the opportunity to turn an unhealthy habit into the safe enjoyment of their sex life. Finally, awareness-raising activities will be carried out, such as the candlelight memorial to commemorate the active fight against HIV, among others.

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Our target population are young people between 14-28 years old who inhabit the Colombian territory and in the regions in which we are present: Antioquia, Bogota, Boyaca, Caldas, Cauca, Tolima, Santander, Risaralda and who share common characteristics which allows the development of peer education, additionally, young people with a differential approach and vulnerability as migrants, victims of any form of violence, diverse population, "NiNi" population that means neither study nor work.

Our group of volunteers as well as our target population, are young people from 14 to 28 years old, who motivated to help the young people of the country, have been trained, trained and trained, who have travelled the Colombian territory doing field work managing to understand the dynamics and environments of our society in order to be able to apply the methodology of peer education, achieving in a fun and empathetic way to reach more young people to help change their realities.

Since 2014 that our project was founded, we have managed to impact about 2000 young people per year, this only counting the face-to-face interventions in the field with our volunteers, also through social networks and information and communication technologies using lives, webinars, dynamics, activities in social networks we have managed to increase even more young people even in areas where we do not yet have volunteers.

What makes our proposal innovative beyond being led by young people who share many characteristics with our target population and that that allows us to develop the peer education methodology that has been documented in the very effective literature, is that we reach young people with a fresh, dynamic proposal and in its concepts. It is much more accepted by our target population when we carry out interventions that are funny, dynamic, participatory, as we would say within our groups "spicy" form that allows us to break down the taboos and stigmas that exist around sexual and reproductive health often in conservative contexts and that do not allow the development of integral education for sexuality. These topics should be discussed and it is better for a trained young person to pass it on to another young person.

According to development goals number 2 health and well-being, and 5 gender equality, we want to continue strengthening the active fight against the spread of sexually transmitted infections including HIV, decreased adolescent pregnancy, and gender-based violence. In the short term, in a year we expect to reach 15 of the 32 departments that Colombia has, since we currently have a presence in 7. This with the network of allies and volunteers who join this project every day. In addition, in a medium as it is 5 years we want other countries in the region such as Mexico and Peru, we have currently been in talks with students from some universities in these countries who have shown interest in replicating our strategy in their countries. In this way we want to be able to train in the Educasex method and continue to be an expanding NGO in the area.

Within Educasex and taking into account our fundamental pillar that is the peer education strategy and that is in turn based on various theories of behaviour such as the theory of reasoned action, social learning, dissemination of innovations, participatory education, healthy beliefs, and the IBMR model, this allows us that from the continuous training and experience of our volunteers we manage to positively influence the young people who intervene, achieving that in an immediate time they manage to understand and reflect on their life habits and especially emphasis on those related to sexual and reproductive health, and in the medium and long term they can apply the knowledge delivered and also replicate them with younger people, like a snowball.

Currently, Educasex Colombia has the following volunteers:

About 125 active volunteers called Educasextors.

Approximately 40 occasional volunteers who for labour reasons cannot be active all the time like the Educasextors, however, at some point they were because of what they are called alumni members.

Finally, people who are not properly volunteers, but who articulate some interventions as support members, and there are about 30 people.

Educasex was founded in February 2014 in the department of Caldas, Colombia, throughout these 9 years of operation it has expanded to 6 other departments including the country's capital.

Throughout the years of operation of Educasex, we have committed and worked tirelessly so that not only our volunteers but also our target population receive and have the same conditions by being part of this initiative, this translates into a zero tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind, so we are a group of volunteers and friends with many different characteristics but who finally unite us and allow that peer strategy can be fulfilled. In this way, Educasex is a safe space in which each of us can be without fear and feel protected as in a second home, strengthening support networks for the different people who are part of this project, that is why we also continue to build country and community through differences.

The business model of Educasex Colombia is based on support to meet the basic needs of our community and especially of our target population, such as sexual and reproductive health education, directing efforts to strengthen this information in the population. This is why during interventions beyond knowledge, we deliver support material such as primers, books, audio-visual material, which allow short, medium and long term to follow up the objectives of the project. In remuneration we receive positioning ourselves among private and governmental entities to obtain economic and social benefits that allow continuity to the initiative, also our volunteers are issued a certification as participants and that is valid as a social and work experience that in turn positions them as high, competitive people in a globalised world since they are trained as leaders, teamwork, among other skills.

Currently Educasex Colombia works as an NGO so much of the current capital is financed through donations from entities and individuals with which we have strategic alliances, or whom we support in spaces of social intervention and in the form of remuneration and this support, additionally, our volunteers annually pay a membership which allows them to obtain benefits with other entities with which we have strategic alliances and also maintain the operation of the project, we also have a line of project products as accessories items with the corporate brand. When Educasex Colombia was founded, we were fellows of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation for 4 consecutive years, which allowed the initiative to be established and continued.