There were totally 14 workshops on reproductive health held for 690 secondary school children for the last 4 months. The workshops were conducted according to grades and each session is averagely about 45 students for 2 hour length. For students of grade 6 and 7, the workshops covered different topics for boys and girls as separated groups.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung, Nam Phuong Tien A secondary school headmaster, admitted the lack of sex education in their curriculum. Therefore, he very much appreciated what we brought into his students. Also, Mr. Dung indicated that school teachers reported to him that they saw changes in their students by their observation just after few sessions. I (Saralen) asked Mrs. Nguyen Thu Hoa, a teacher in charge of school extra-curriculum, what they were. She said “Our students looked very contented and happy in their class; I think because they had space to talk about things which are considered private and sensitive and they were able to put their unnamed concerns about their reproductive health in words. At home, their parents avoid talking about sex because they don’t know how. At class, their teachers told them to ‘learn by themselves’ because teachers are not professional trained.”
Her answer brought me back to our first workshops, it was when Mrs. Hoa gave us a surprise look “How could you keep them stay still for about 2 hours?” It was her who stood at the back of classroom watching me at the first session and also her, later took initiative to join in our teaching session. She helped to calm students and supervised group discussion, and distributed leaning materials…
