Pupils learn about sex
On the day, youth mentors from the organisations held talks with the pupils and performed live demonstrations of how to safely use a condom.
Discourse around condoms at schools and sex education at schools has featured prominently in recent discussions.
A novel programme run by Durex, called CONNEC-ED, has broken the ice and is engaging with pupils across the country about safe sex, while encouraging pupils to abstain until the right time.
On Tuesday, March 17, the organisation visited the Bishop Bavin School to interact with pupils.
CONNECT-ED is Durex’s high school CSI initiative, which is run in association with the Gauteng Department of Education and aims to provide young people of high school age with the knowledge required to enable behavioural change, specifically with regards to healthy sexual activity.
The programme encompasses a variety of issues faced by teenagers, including unplanned pregnancy, peer pressure, alcohol, and raising consciousness among young girls about the dangers of getting involved with older men, loosely called ‘sugar daddies’.
On the day, youth mentors from the organisations held talks with the pupils and performed live demonstrations of how to safely use a condom.
The pupils also had an opportunity to ask questions.
Mr Thisile Mtyeku, the brand manager for Durex, said the programme seeks to address a range of social challenges affecting young people, including sexual health, STIs and HIV/AIDS.
“Today, we have 750 schools that we have touched with the programmes,” he said.
Mr Mtyeku countered any talk that exposing pupils to condoms and sex education might encourage them to engage in sex at a much earlier age.
“The best part the we communicate in the programme is that the safest way is to abstain. However, if abstaining is not something they can do, we have to be real and protect them,” he said.
The chief education specialist from the Department of Education, Nkosana Mnisi, also lauded the programme.
“The association with CONNECT-ED has been invaluable for us because we have been able to use results and successes from the programme to assist us in strategically mapping our department’s sexual health education activities. The CONNECT-ED Buddy programme is especially critical in that it allows us to identify key development areas that are common among teens. We can act towards implementing these areas specifically into the Life Orientation curriculum. This is an association we would like to see continue as we would like to see the private and government sectors work together to deliver on results,” said Mnisi.
