400 Youths Combat Teen Pregnancy in Thailand

Ban Nonsawang School (Educational Opportunity Expansion Schools) is located in Ubon Ratchathani Province. It's one of eight schools which joined the fighting against teenage pregnancy project supported by CCF Ubon Ratchathani during 2015 - 2017. The school led by the School Director, Ms. Saisamorn, implemented the activities called "knowing sexuality wisely" in three dimensions, including building the capacity of student leaders, supporting the school teachers, and promoting the school to be the good practice for preventing and responding to the teenage pregnancy in schools. Ms. Saisamorn said that "Ban Nonsawang School joined the fighting against teenage pregnancy project since 2015. The school was supported by CCF Ubon Ratchathani. The project was able to promote an awareness of the teenage pregnancy in the school. In each year, there was at least one student left the school because they were pregnant or they got marriage. In order to prevent and respond to the problem, the school organized at least one or two trainings each year by an external trainer to students. In 2016, the school found that the result from the evaluation from CCF Ubon Ratchathani led the school to develop its own mechanism to prevent and respond the sexual problems for students and to ensure that the implementation would be more effective and sustainable. The project implementation touched three dimensions, including; Capacity Building for Student Leaders. The project built the capacity of student leaders so they could pass on sexual knowledge to other students in the school through a shadow play. The play divided a content based on an age of the audience and followed by a question and answer session which students could raise the questions about the play. The play also encouraged students to apply the knowledge in their daily life. The school successfully built three generations of student leaders. Some graduated students also returned to train the shadow play to the younger generation, making the taboo sexual issue to be fun for students' learning. Supporting the School Teachers. The in-charge teachers and all the teachers in the school joined the project activities by providing an advice to students during the activity designing and in other related issues. The school guidance system was established and allowed the teachers to visit and meet with students' parent as well as understand the living condition of each student. Once the students faced the problem, it's easier for the teachers to understand and quickly find the solution for them. Promoting the school. The project created a connection between the school, teachers, parent, community leaders and Sub-District Health Promoting Hospital. The collaboration was able to prevent and respond to the students' sexual problems, which were deemed to be cultural sensitive. The school also educated the students' parent. In each semester, the meeting will be held for the parent from each grade, emphases on the students' behaviors and the role of parent to support the students to study and be responsible as well as advise the parent to observe their behaviors and how to communicate the sexual issue with their children, especially from the opposite sex. Ms. Saisamorn said that "Since the school implemented the sexual education activity by engaging the school and the community, it allowed students and parents to understand a sexual wellbeing and how to communicate about the sexual problem within the family. During the past two years, the school did not find any case of teenage pregnancy, making it to believe that the solution is on the right track and starts to have a hope that children and teenagers in the community will be protected and will have a better future." The journey of knowing sexuality wisely project of Ban Nonsawang School in Ubon Ratchathani Province is one of the approaches to support the school to effectively and sustainably prevent and respond to the teenage pregnancy. CCF would like to thank for all the donors for the support and allow CCF to mobilize the project sustainably. For more information of the project, please CCF's website.

Links:

• http://www.ccfthai.or.th