Despite the continued scourge of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in South Africa, sex education remains an elusive and somewhat contentious subject in many schools, creating a desperate need for intervention.
According to Mara Glennie, CEO of leading anti-rape and sexual violence organisation, the TEARS Foundation, “There is currently a shocking lack of sex education available to South Africa’s youth. While the material is provided to teachers in their life orientation syllabus, it is among a variety of topics they can choose from. With the many taboos still surrounding sex, most teachers shy away from the topic. It’s not addressed by the parents and guardians either, leaving youth without the critical knowledge they need on topics like consent and sexual health.”
To bridge this gap, the TEARS Foundation has teamed up with 1st for Women Insurance and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and, in conjunction with the Department of Basic Education (DBE), has launched a safe, easily-accessible and informative tech-enabled solution called SPEAK UP®.
SPEAK UP® was created to enable and provide South African youth with sex education on their cellphones and assist users in making informed decisions about their sexual health.
“Last year, it was found that 10% of rape cases reported nationally stem from higher education institutions. If the youth are properly educated, from an early age, with tools like SPEAK UP®, we would hope to see a decrease in these numbers by providing them with the relevant information,” says Glennie.
Another national issue that SPEAK UP® aims to address is that of teen pregnancies. “Watching a young, underage child turn into a mother is heart-breaking. Children need to be children, not birthing them. It’s particularly devastating to learn that many of the girls who gave birth last year were barely teenagers,” says Glennie.
SPEAK UP® is an extension of the award-winning TEARS Foundation tool – a free, national 24/7 USSD helpline (*134*7355#) which provides victims and survivors of rape and/or sexual abuse with emergency assistance, through a free call back option and contact information for their closest crisis centers.
Seugnette van Wyngaard, Head of 1st for Women says: “SPEAK UP® is a true breakthrough for sex education in South Africa. Through a series of short, interactive and animated videos, with subtitles, in case the user needs to watch the video in private, we hope to break the taboos with accurate and relevant information so that the youth are able to make conscious, healthy and responsible choices about relationships and sexuality. The topic of the first video is Consent.”
The videos will be translated into Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans at a later stage. In addition, the videos can be shared with as many people as a user likes, enabling the content to reach even further.
In line with TEARS philosophy that all its services are offered to victims and survivors of GBV for free, they have loaded their electronic and digital platforms on zero-rated sites, making it free to all users. TEARS will also carry the cost of reverse user charges and will source funding via donor outreach, like that of 1st for Women, IDC, and public donations.
“It is our hope that SPEAK UP® will challenge the youth to think critically about gender and about their role within their culture, community and society at large. While the information is mostly aimed at young people and youth-led and youth-serving organisations, we hope that it will also be useful to other organisations, volunteers and activists who want to begin or strengthen advocacy around improving sexual education across the world,” says Glennie.
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