Bisexual or Intersex?

That got your attention!

This weeks blog is looking at materials that help in understanding sexuality. It's very important. Confusion leads to all kinds of problems. 

The main problem being the first three letters of the word sexuality. Stop giggling!  

SAfAIDS has this groovy programme that has young people right at the centre - Young4Real. It trains young people to understand the fundamentals of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). And because this is life changing for so many young people involved, these same young people become champions and trainers themselves. 

Given the social and cultural taboos around talking about sex with parents, young people, inevitably, get their SRH information from other young people.  


For example, last week SAfAIDS Zimbabwe Country Team were out conducting training with partners using our time-tested YPISA Toolkit. This is when it was discovered that the terms bisexual and intersex were really not well understood. Even the parents needed some support in these tricky areas. 

I am not just being dramatic, there is a lot of confusion. Take the example of the young women in the training who, when discussing STIs, said they had been told that there was an old man in the village who could cure young women of STIs if they slept with him. 

Thankfully we train as teams so local health partners and Ministry of Education were there also. Afterall, it takes a village to raise a child. 

The great news is that tthe Y4R programme is soon to be rolled out formally in Zambia, Swaziland and South Africa, as it seems that young people still have little or no access to the information and services they need to make healthy, informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives.  So watch this space as we adapt these materials to have regional appeal.

Governments and leaders across Africa, and beyond, have repeatedly agreed to meet young people's needs, including those relating to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Check out the tables below:

So let us give them a helping hand. Supply and demand on SRH services for young people is critical.