Teaching Sex Ed. in Ushpa Ushpa

Jennifer is very excited about working with those in our community and educating them on Sex Education.



Last week we had a meeting about the sexual-education campaign where we discussed which age groups we should focus what kind of material on and how to do it. We devided the students into three groups where I am to be in charge of planning activities for the older students, rougly 16-20 years old. 

One of the main things that I have planned for them is a powerpoint of sexism, focusing on every-day sexism rather than heavier issues such as violence against women (which will to some extent be covered by other parts of the workshop). Making people aware of sexism is something I personally think this is as important as any other social-work related activity as it heavily impacts on the situation of the women of Bolivia (or any part of the world). As far as sex ed goes this part of the workshop will obviously be more related to the attitudes regarding sex and gender roles rather than the clinical aspect of sex and the functions of the body in relation to it. According to the rest of the staff this would be the first time to implement this kind of approach to the sexual education here as far as they are aware of. 

I am very excited about this project and getting the ability to influence the content of the workshop to the extent that I will get to. However, a personal fear that I have is whether or not I will be able to meet the needs of the students rather than to simply counteract issues that I have seen  from my Swedish perspective. Within postmodernism this is a reoccuring theme regarding social work. Social work should meet the needs of the clients and work in their favour utilizing approaches such as empowerment. Because of that it is hugely important for the social worker to listen and consider the view of the client as they are in fact living their situation, hence the experts of what measures should best be applicable to deal with it. As a Swede I am aware of that I am likely to problematize social structures in Bolivia in an different way than the Bolivians would. This could mean that I could be way off in regards to meeting the needs of the students, or it could mean that I have the ability to offer them a fresh perspective and a new angle to analyse their society from. 

My final conclusion to this little personal dilemma will have to be that they only way to get a society to progress is to bring in some new thoughts. With my powerpoint I will be as carefull as possible not to impose too much of my personal values onto the students as the aim is rather to present questions and encourage them to view common themes in their society more critically. 

These is mainly the reasoning that I use to motivate my take on the sex ed workshops! I hope it gets recieved in the way intended... 

Meeting the Tantakuna ladies

Sara, a swedish volunteer, talks about her first time meeting the Tantakuna Ladies and her progress with promoting their products. 

Last week was the first time I got to meet the Tantakuna ladies. It was nice to see all the people that I heard so much about! Although I didn’t understand much of what was actually said in the meeting, Johan had explained to me beforehand that they were going to discuss was the idea of creating the co-operative. This has been on the agenda for quite some time now. Apart from that, I have been in contact with Sweden regarding the interest of buying the products for some different Christmas markets, which seems to have caught the interest of some. All in all, it seems as if  the Tantakuna ladies are well on there way and I’m excited to be apart of it!

To see what the Tantakuna ladies are making go to: https://shop.proyectohorizonte.org/

Youth Group Promotion

Jennifer and a few others go around to different schools to promote the youth groups. 

The biggest challenge with going to one of the schools in the community to promote the youth groups proved to be gettin in to it! In the blazing sun we were greeted by locked doors and high walls. However we could have ended up waiting longer than we did for them to come open for us as they seem only open during breaks. Slutet gott, allting gott!

Zumba

Jennifer, one of our volunteers from Sweden, talks about there evening working on a dance for the girls youth group.


Yesterday me and two other volunteers spent all evening working on our preparations for this thursdays girl's group. As we are going to have a zumba class for the girls, we were literally drenched in sweat by the time we had set all the steps for the choreographies and had run them through a couple of times. Luckily enough we had some help the day before from one of the local teen talents who taught us the moves to a very popular Reggaeton song. With the choreography down it's just down to the presentation tomorrow night. Let's see if we have just enough latin flavour in us to get a room of bolivian teens dancing!

Working with the Grupo de Chicas

Fiona one of our newest volunteers hasn't had a problem fitting in amongst the girls at our youth group. Here's a short glimpse of what she and the other volunteers have done to create a safe environment for the young women of Ushpa Ushpa.

Since starting work at Proyecto Horizonte I’ve only been to the girls’ group twice so far but it’s fast becoming my favourite part of the week. It’s on once a week for about 3 hours and it’s a place for the girls of Ushpa-Ushpa to come and hang out, listen to music, and get to know each other. 

And it’s the getting to know each other part that is the main focus of the group at the moment. Or rather, confidence and trust in each other. After talking to the girls about who they could talk to if they had a problem or a secret, the overwhelming response was apparently ‘no one’. They don’t have anyone they trust enough to confide in; and this is something that surely has to change. Being a teenager is hard enough as it is, but not having anyone to talk to about it must make it that much harder.

So, that’s what tonight’s group was about. And I loved it.

We started off with jewellery-making and, although it didn’t start up too many conversations since everyone was concentrating pretty hard, it was fun to see what everyone produced at the end, and the girls let me take a few snaps of their handiwork.

Then, Jennifer came up with a great game to break the ice between the girls. It basically meant everybody ended up sitting on top of each other and laughing a lot, so the physical barriers between the girls were broken down which definitely helps a lot when it comes to trust.

The next game was Truth or Dare. Dangerous territory, but everyone made it through unscathed. I thought this was a great idea because both truth and dare require a certain amount of trust in the people you’re with: you tell the truth in the hope that you won’t get ridiculed, and you do a dare in the hope you won’t get ridiculed.

But the lights cut out halfway through. And, after a bit of screaming and running around, the group turned to the one activity you just have to do during a blackout: ghost stories. And, although I didn’t understand much of them (I know there was something about a black dog), it was fun to just sit in the dark and listen to the girls telling stories.

Overall, it was a really good night and I think the girls are beginning to trust each other more, and, as they see our faces there every week, I hope they’ll begin to trust us volunteers as well.