Steps Forward

If you were to ask me what one of the biggest problems in my community in Peru is, I would say the lack of communication and education on safe sex. Within my first three months in site, three teenage girls had to drop out of the high school due to being pregnant; they we all 16 and younger. In this last school year, we’ve lost two more girls to pregnancy, ages 15.

My host mom accompanied me to a Peace Corps training in March to work on project design and management, and she immediately agreed the biggest project we needed to work on is teen pregnancy prevention. It is a very personal issue for her, as her own daughter had to drop out of college at 19 when she became pregnant.

Since then my host mom, other community counterparts, and I have been working on projects in my site that work towards the goal of HIV/Aids and adolescent pregnancy prevention. Part of that is having an “Escuela para Padres” (school for parents) to help them develop better communication with their teens, especially concerning delicate subjects. The other part is having a health promoters group.

The health promoters group, or Pasos Adelante (Steps Forward), is a Peace Corps Peru developed program that trains teens in the high school to be peer health educators. I’m working side-by-side with the local obstetrician to capacitate a group of teenagers (all of whom applied to join the group) with the Pasos Adelante manual, a 12-session program that goes over: good decision making practices, puberty, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, STI’s, HIV/Aids, looking for an ideal partner, abstinence, condom use, and drug and alcohol abuse. After they are done with the 12 sessions, they will move on to do sex-ed presentations in their own classrooms with their classmates. We will also train the teachers on sex education, and discuss this more in depth with the Escuela para Padres

The Pasos Adelante group is by far one of my best projects, as it is directly addressing a need of my community, the kids love it (I mean, we’re talking about sex. All the time), and I have found one of the best counterparts I could ever ask for to do the project with me. There is so much disinformation about sex out there that many teens believe in, as well as unsafe practices that put them at risk (ie: a common rite of passage for a teenage boy to “become a man” is to be taken to a brothel to lose his virginity to a prostitute). The obstetrician, Lupe, is the most reliable person I have worked with in my community. She is motivated, helps in all the session planning, and is just a nice person to be around in general. I am really enjoying working with her.

Lupe, talking about reproductive organs

Talking about "what we know" of the opposite sex. Some of the boys were too embarrassed to draw body parts, so their girl's reproductive organs are being modest.

Playing the game of "the sinking boat" and deciding whose life is more valuable to save, and who can be left to die. TRICK QUESTION! Everyone's life has value!

There have been some roadblocks with the group that have delayed the progress of the program. It started with a bang and was included as part of the school schedule with 25 participants, but then the teachers went on a month long strike in July and it was impossible to round up the kids to do any sessions. Lupe and I decided to wait until school was back in to continue, but when it recommenced the director wouldn’t allow us to work within the school anymore. Since then we have finally started having group outside of school, but we have lost about half of our members. A second teachers’ strike has recently begun, but this time Lupe and I were prepared and set up sessions during the week while the kids are out of class.

Our first day of meeting during the teachers’ strike only three kids showed up. Three. So, Lupe, the three girls, and I walked all around town, door to door, finding the kids that were supposed to be at the meeting. Two hours of walking around. Many of them were in their pajamas, some of them had left their house as early as 4 am to work in the fields, and others just forgot. It is difficult to have the group outside of school because many teens are needed at home to help with house chores and working to bring money in for the household. The attendance of girls in my group has drastically lowered, as they are the ones kept home to cook. It is very frustrating, and can be a big source of anger and resentment for me towards the director who has stopped allowing us to work within school hours. But, we have 13 who are still coming, and that is better than none, so I’m hoping those same 13 can continue to come and finish the program so that we can start doing presentations for the entire school.

When my host mom and I were developing this project, she often became overwhelmed and teary eyed, feeling the weight of the world sitting on her shoulders. “There is just no way we can stop them all from making bad decisions,” she fretted as the magnitude of what we were up against came down on her. 

It was really hard to see her so upset and all I could say was, “You’re right, there is no way. All we can do is hope we can help a few, and if we can do that, we’ve achieved part of our goal.”

Funny how words said in a moment of consoling another are the ones I often have to repeat to myself. So, even while the schools are shut down and other things aren’t working out, as long as I get some information to these 13 kids, I am happy.