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Since 2012, the Teacher’s Union Malawi, together with Rutgers is training tutors and students of teacher training colleges to facilitate The World Starts With Me. We asked tutors, students and alumni of the training how comprehensive sexuality education changed their lives personally and professionally.
What do you do differently now? How do your students react? Their stories demonstrate how important access to comprehensive sexuality education is for gender equality, empowerment and sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.
Memory (21):
I knew nothing about gender, love, sex and HIV. Now I even teach about safe sex and sexuality.
Nicholas (36):
I talk freely to my students, my children and relatives about family planning and issues of love.
Vita (53):
Sex education changed my attitude. I’m now able to discuss sexuality with my children and other youths.
Paul (21):
I understand my girlfriend better now. I learned there is more to intimacy than just having sex.
Ulema (20):
WSWM has helped me to interact with people from different places. And it thaught me computer skills.
Duncain (26):
My friends and I support each other. I encourage them to get tested for HIV and think about planning their future.
Trinity (23):
I learned that everybody has equal rights! I no longer discriminate against friends living with HIV.
Francis (21):
I used to be too shy to talk about sexuality with my friends and parents. Now it’s a subject I talk about without fear.
How Comprehensive Sexuality Education Changed my Life
Young people growing up are naturally curious about sex, relationships, reproductive health and the changes their bodies are going through. Rutgers offers programmes in comprehensive sexuality education, such as The World Starts With Me, to support young people and enable them to make their own well-informed choices in relationships and their sexual lives. This helps young people to feel more confident and develop stronger self-esteem.
The World Starts with Me (WSWM) is a comprehensive digital Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights curriculum for young people from 12 to 20 years old in an in-school and out-of-school setting. The World Starts With Me combines IT skills building with creative expression. With this curriculum, Rutgers aims to contribute not only to the improvement of young people’s sexual and reproductive health but also to their social and economic development.
The curriculum aims to make sexual and reproductive health more real and appealing to young people by combining sex education with useful and fun IT skills. The overall goal is to give young people self-confidence and control over their own lives by supporting them in well-informed decision-making. WSWM uses active and creative learning. The exercises help students to internalize the essential message, learn crucial life skills and explore new behaviours.