By Kanchada Piriyarangsan | Project Leader
CCF (Community Children Foundation) thanks all donors for moving forward the Project “400 Youths Combat Teen Pregnancy in Thailand”. From March – May 2016 our staff from 5 provinces (Ubon Ratchathani, Leoi, Mukdaharn, Burirum and Payao) met with the school’s principals, lead teachers, community leaders and youth leaders to prepare for the launching of building capacity of 400 youth leaders in 25 schools so that they could advocate sexuality education with 8,000 peers and 10,000 families. Below are reflections of some girl leaders.
Miss Jirabhorn, 18 years, Grade 12 is one of the 80 youth leaders in Ubon Ratchathani province. She was chosen to be trained as Youth Advocates in 2015. She was delighted as it will give her an opportunity to learn so many new things. Earlier in 2014, she had the perception that it was inappropriate to discuss sex topics in public. Most teenagers do not dare to discuss and ask questions. After the training, Jirabhorn discussed among friends how to advocate their peers.
Jirabhorn together with other 8 youth leaders organized puppet theatre as a way to advocate their peers. She said: “Puppet theatre is played in the dark so it creates mysterious feeling and helps audiences learn through imagination”.
Jirabhorn and youth leaders composed some short stories showing the risk of unsafe sex compare to the group without risk. She explained: “We practice and perform at the community center. We spread news about the show to children but parents also come along at the show time. The feedback received is that both teenagers and parents are very pleased. They gained the knowledge as well as enjoying the show. Therefore, we decided to use puppet theatre as a mean to educate our peers with the objective to reduce teen pregnancy.”
In addition to puppet theatre, youth leaders of one School, Ubon Ratchathani organize a “Q&A” session every morning after the National Anthem in school. An “anonymous box” is placed in front of each class room to collect questions. After that youth leaders will search for answers through the internet with help from teachers. The outcome shows an increase in understanding of sexual health.
Mr. Wichai, lead teacher who has been involved in youth-led activity expressed that: “Teenage pregnant tend to drop out from school, hence they have low quality of life. With the support from this project, youth leaders advocate their peers through different activities such as posters, Q & A session after the National Anthem, puppet theatre and a parade to publicize the teenage pregnancy problem in Thailand. I think this is a very good project. It is a way for school and community to prevent teenage pregnancy through the support from CCF (Community Children Foundation).”
The stories of Jirabhorn and her friends from Ubon Ratchathani are few examples of CCF’s attempt to promote advocacy skill for volunteer youths on sexuality education. However, this is only the beginning of the project. Further tasks are building the capability of new youth leaders, increase their technical skill in media production, radio programme and video clip. These activities will not be possible without the support from donors. We thank you again for your help to build better future for youths in Thailand. Please visit our website www.ccfthai.or.th to see our progress.
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