Sex education low even amongst adults - GRPA head

Sex education low even amongst adults – GRPA head

Mar 09, 2015 News

Although sexual education efforts should focus on youths, director of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA), Patricia Sheeratan-Bisnauth believes that efforts should also be placed on educating adults.

GRPA Director Patricia Sheeratan-Bisnauth

During a recent interview with Kaieteur News, Sheeratan-Bisnauth said the organisation is working on targeting adults as well as youths. She explained that young people are often coming and calling into the GRPA, seeking basic knowledge on sexual health and reproduction.
Similarly, she said, a lot of adult men and women are seeking the same information. She said too the GRPA would receive lots of calls from adults.
“Many adult persons, whether they are in their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s even, also still don’t know much about their sexual selves. There are many, many things they don’t know and this is a cause for alarm,” Sheeratan-Bisnauth said.
She said the organisation is working towards linking sexual and reproductive health with gender based violence. She further said gender based violence had been a cause for a lot of problems and conflicts within families and homes.
“It’s a lack of understanding,” she said. “We’re from a culture where we were just thrown into this situation.”
She went on to state that the situation was different in many other countries. There, she said, the youth are taught through a cultural rite of passage.
“In other countries, they work towards educating through culture, the different stages in life and that allows for better self understanding,” Sheeratan-Bisnauth said.
She continued that this information was lacking in Guyana and noted that local youths have almost nowhere to receive such life-changing information.
She further said that teachers will also be targeted as part of GRPA’s plan. She opined that they are unable to deliver comprehensive sex education as they too are “products of a failed system”.
The GRPA has been in existence since 1973 and offers a number of sexual and reproductive health services to the general public. These services include counseling, gynecological care, HIV and STI testing and treatment, and infertility management.