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...
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