This project will educate 60 teenagers across rural Moldova on local youth issues, namely sexual health and rights, traffic safety, discrimination, bullying and violence. It will also raise up teenagers with the skills needed to become advocates for 1,000 young people in their communities. They will learn to organise local campaigns on youth rights and issues. This will help them to inform their peers about healthy, violence-free lifestyles and sexual education through theatre and workshops.
Moldova has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in Europe. 35/1,000 pregnancies are to girls aged 15-19. 10 of these end in abortion. However, several attempts to introduce sexual education into school curriculum have met protest and failure. This is particularly challenging in rural areas, where young people often do not have the means to access health education. Parents can also be absent, leaving to work elsewhere. Some youth enter abusive relationships, or face rape and violence.
The youth network Y-PEER Moldova has launched a campaign to peer-educate teenagers on sexual health and rights, and give them the skills they need to go into their communities to pass this knowledge on to other youth. These workshops also allow teenagers to create campaigns on youth issues: traffic safety, discrimination, domestic violence and bullying. This will include theatre technique training, with participants learning to perform social plays on the issues important to them and their peers
This project will help young people to challenge their knowledge and attitudes regarding their lifestyle through peer-education. By creating a network of educated youth, adolescents will be able to take informed decisions on sexual health, road safety and more. This will prevent sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancy and road casualties. They will be able to reach out to the community to raise awareness of youth issues and educate peers on the importance of healthy, safe lifestyles.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
