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Oct 27, 2014 News
Despite some concerns from conservative groups, the Guyana Responsible Parent Association (GRPA) is actively engaging faith-based communities on matters surrounding reproductive health and sexual education.
In an interview with Kaieteur News, GRPA Executive Director Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth said that her reason for engaging religious groups in conversations about sexual health is due to the influence and benefit that these groups can have on communities. She explained that GRPA has been conducting workshops for religious personnel, which she relayed received positive responses.
Bisnauth, who is also a religious minister, explained that these workshops fall completely within the perimeters of the Caricom Framework for Mainstreaming Gender and are sensitive to different religious beliefs on the topic.
According to Bisnauth, the workshops focused primarily on family planning practices and sexual violence. These sessions incorporated the expertise of a health professional, who provided information and participated in various discussion points on reproductive health with attendees.
“It was great to see that the participants engaged quite well (during the workshop).Some did so slowly but by the end of the session everyone was engaged.”
An unexpected result from one of the workshops was a comment made by a member of Rastafarian community. Bisnauth related that he was genuinely troubled by the response men receive when talking about sexual violence, as he felt that men take “a lot of licks for the ills of society.”
What fascinated Bisnauth was that the man raised the issue that men in general are also susceptible to sexual violence, and that the problem is not only one for women. “It is evident that men are being beaten up in other ways and society does not talk about it,” said the GRPA official.
She continued to say that this was why the agency has been working to start a clinic specifically geared to men. They have even experimented with hosting forums for men to talk about sexual issues which are specific to them.
However, it was found that in these forums men were less inclined to talk about sex in a “healthy way” in comparison to women. Another concern was that men do not attend checkups as regularly as women do, with most men refusing to be examined by other male doctors with regard to sexual health.
Highlighted in the faith-based workshops, according to other GRPA personnel, was that they helped to shine light on facets of the reproductive health spectrum that were previously untapped.
According to GRPA Programme Director, Renuka Anandjit, cooperating with faith-based groups is vital to the sexual education of the country’s youth, since official statistics show that the official debut age for sexual activity is as early as fourteen. She posited that with the help of faith-based groups, GRPA can further enlighten the public on family planning practices and reproductive health due to their influence in communities. The intended result of such cooperation would be decreased instances of social problems like underage pregnancies, sex violence and rape.
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