We have spent the first months of 2019 organizing our work and planning our new workshop program that we can now happily say is ready. We have been back at our partner schools both in Cali and Popayán to start our work with the students againg, and to be honest it feels great to be back.
Two weeks of workshops in Cali
Salka has been back at the school in a small school located in the neighborhood Siloé in the western part of Cali. She has been back to do the new workshops with the 9th and 11th graders. Last year we did one workshop with each group, and when they saw us back at the school they showed interest right away.
In our new program, we include more topics and it has been a very positive experience to come back to work with the same students several days in a row. The students have received our new material with many good questions and a very positive attitude.
Nori is back in Popayán
Nori has been back at two partner schools in Popayán and has spent most of her time doing the new workshop program with 9th graders in the afternoon at one of the partner schools.
At the other school, she has been working with the 8th grader girls with our new workshop about menstruation.
Focus on menstruation
As something new we have developed a workshop about menstruation that we are offering to 8th grade girls. We decided to create a space just for girls to take some of the taboo away, to give them the opportunity to ask us questions that they might not be comfortable asking with the boys present.
Both Nori and Salka did their first menstruation workshops on Wednesday 15/5 and it has been a very positive experience. The students had a lot of "aha" moments which is what we aimed for. They were especially interested to hear about the different products to use during your period: Sanitary towels (reusable and one-time use), tampons and menstrual cup.
In the end of the workshop we invited the boys to come participate, ask questions and the girls explained what they felt was important for the boys to know about menstruation.
Overall a very good experience that we will keep working with in the future, we are already looking into the possibility of expanding to have two workshops about menstruation. We will keep you updated.