In order to raise awareness among young people regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights, culturally appropriate Life Skills Based Education is being provided in partner schools. Interested and competent school teachers were selected and trained from each school that have been conducting LSBE sessions with students in grades 8-10 using a whole school approach i.e. reaching all students of target grades. For this purpose, Rutgers WPF has adapted the CD-Rom based World Starts With Me (WSWM) curriculum with the technical support from Rutgers WPF, Netherlands. WSWM will be contextualized by following an intervention mapping strategy for sexuality education programmes. An Advisory Board (AB) with key stakeholders including Government representatives, SRHR experts, and school heads was constituted to supervise a Working Group (WG)consisting of teachers, and students of selected schools have been established and involved in the adaptation process. Initially six (6) lessons have been contextualized and piloted; findings of this pilot will be used to finalization of whole curriculum.

Problem

With a huge population of more than 180 million people, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country of the world and ranks 125 out of 169 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) , . A third of the population lives under the national poverty line, more than half of the population is illiterate , and sixty-four percent of the population is less than 29 years of age.Pakistani youth - largest proportion of Pakistan’s population - is vulnerable to a variety of sexual and reproductive health risks including (forced) early marriage, sexual abuse, unintended pregnancy, (unsafe) abortion and STIs. Adolescents in Pakistan are not exempt from the sexual and reproductive health problems faced by the adult population. These problems include lack of information and access to services, maternal health burden, taboos on sexuality, sexual violence/exploitation, and the risk of exposure to STIs. However, adolescents are not adults; therefore, they are more vulnerable and require more information and protection than their older counterparts. Over the past decade, international NGOs and donors have played an important role in the promotion of reproductive health and youth development in Pakista

Solution

We aim to raise awareness among youth on sexual and reproductive health and rights through life skills based education. In order to achieve this overall aim, Rutgers WPF will have the following main objectives in Pakistan: 1.educate and aware young people about HIV/AIDS and other SRH issues to make safe and informed choices regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights 2.empower young people with skills, motivation, and support to promote healthy life styles among their peers and communities 3.engage young people in sharing responsibilities in all aspects of d4l program and taking a lead role in promoting life skills in their communities The programme is being implemented by Rutgers WPF, Pakistan with the support from local partner NGOs and schools for ensuring efficiency and sustainability.The pilot programme has been initiated during the first year with a small scale implementation (piloting) in all cities. The lessons learned during the first year would lead to full scale implementation during the second year. RutgersWPF, Pakistan will also develop information and education tools on leadership, communication, and advocacy to engage students in promoting key LSBE messages within their schools and communities through developing active peer networks in schools. Rutgers WPF will also use print and electronic media (e.g., newspapers, TV, and Radio) for raising awareness among young people as well as wider audience on sexual and reproductive health issues, status of STIs and HIV epidemic, and necessary life skills for making safe and informed choice

Example

The targeted age group for the programme in Pakistan is 15-19 years which means both male and female students of grades 9 and 10. This age group is selected so that age appropriate information can be relayed to the students as although puberty is reached at a much earlier age but local context and socio-cultural sensitivities have to be catered to as well. The programme consists of four steps: inspire, educate, activate and celebrate. Alongside this programme we have (pre) campaigning and in order to create visibility, using internal and external communication. And we have fundraising in order to be able to run the programme. Overall it is about becoming an agent of change, so that you can mobilize others for social change. Then you can convince and involve your peers.

Marketplace

Broadly, LSBE programmes in Pakistan lie in one of the three main categories i.e. Life skills education in formal schools; interventions for out of schools youth; and HIV/AIDs awareness programme for adolescents. One common feature among various life skills initiatives throughout the country is the participation of youth, either directly or indirectly. Some organizations e.g. WPF, FPAF, UNFPA, UNICEF have directly involved youth in implementation of life skills as peer educators; while others organizations included youth only during needs assessments to identify and prioritize issues faced by adolescents.. An initiative by Plan International provides life skills services to out-of-school youth through its youth friendly health care services centers.