Following a difficult year 2020--as lockdown and the pandemic stopped educators from meeting children and teenagers in private spaces--the pace picked up again for this branch of Planning Familial’s activities, recording a growth of 191% in 2021.
Over the past year, 4,383 students benefitted from its emotional and sexual education (ESA) programme, according to the organisation’s yearly report. Another 533 persons met one of the six educators upholding the programme in a non-formal context. 470 people received training to teach on the subject.
The programme--which represents 22% of the NGO’s work--has seen its popularity grow over the past years. In 2018, around 5,000 beneficiaries were counted, a number that increased to around 8,000 in three years. Primary school students and high schoolers receive access to grade-appropriate sexual education, though after school care centres, youth clubs, foster homes, and supervised homes for people with disabilities also benefit from the ESA.
“There are several factors for this growth,” the deputy director of the NGO, Emilie Kaiser, tells Delano: “We retrieved students who weren’t able to receive sexual education because of covid. Schools are also requesting more and more education.” Sexual harassment incidents, nudes sent by a student, and other events make schools get in touch. Other projects relating to protection and screening also use the NGO’s assistance.
A small team
The ESA either conducts external visits or offers private appointments with children, teens, parents and educators alike, and presents the NGO’s services, as well as knowledge about sexual and emotional health through educational tools. Gender stereotypes, the sexuality spectrum, understanding boundaries and one’s body as well as consent and sex representation in social media are some of the topics broached by the NGO.
Sharing the information would shape participants into being more careful with protection, consent, as well as allowing them to develop critical thinking when witnessing sexual content on social media and the internet. Furthermore, the NGO through its ESA programme helps students better understand abuse and report it more efficiently.
However, with six educators, the ESA branch needs more support, “ideally six times more staff than what we already have,” Kaiser says, though she underlines that the government has been supportive. So-called multipliers are then trained to cover the staff shortages, but this isn’t enough, according to Kaiser: “I think we’ve made a lot of progress, but of course, we would love more aid.”
Raising awareness through many campaigns
In 2021, formal education in schools and institutional structures made up the largest part of the ESA’s activities (81%), but the campaign reaches further.
Consent was one of the focus campaigns of the ESA, with 4,000 condoms and 2,500 polaroids featuring reminders of the definition of consent being handed out. “It’s important for teens to know what consent is--it’s important to be able to say ‘no’, but also to be able to say ‘yes’ and what one agrees to,” Kaiser says. Teens are also taught about understanding when someone doesn’t give them consent, sexual or other. “There are a lot of norms to deconstruct,” Kaiser continues.
Further efforts target internet and social media usage in relation to consent. “Some parents activate filters to protect their children, but it’s often useless,” Kaiser explains. The ESA thus works on discussing consent, but also legal aspects related to digital child sexual abuse material, as teens take and post explicit content, as well as the indelibility of photos on the internet.
Surprising paradigm changes and future plans
“What we didn’t have in the past much, was the support we have had to provide to professionals who want to signal signs and cases of abuse in the past few months. There are many more socio-educational professionals who have doubts about acts they have witnessed--whether it’s a sexual play or a sexual transgression,” says Kaiser. If it turns out to be the latter, the ESA notifies the prosecutor’s office.
The family planning organisation, which turns 55 this year, also launched a campaign during the pandemic, “to stay in touch” with youths. Its Instagram account invites users to send in their questions without judgement. A guide, “Wat äntweren?” (“How to answer?”), provides support to parents.
The NGO hands out period products as one of its activities too. In 2021, 5,200 disposable menstrual products were handed out in one of the organisation’s three centres, on top of 140 menstrual cups. 44,388 sanitary pads were also donated to the Luxembourg-Ukrainian charity LUkraine and shelters following the arrival of those displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Another campaign around period poverty is set to be launched in May 2022, as was revealed during the press conference.
Further projects--such as the Plan P, where youths are educated about the size of their penis--or the establishment of an educational programme for children under 5 are also in the works.