I forgot in my last post to tell you about our Community Activity! The main thing is that it’s done! I’m still kind of in shock, though, that we actually did a presentation in Russian.
Each EOD group/village was assigned to do an activity for in their community, such as host an informational meeting, organize a cultural event, etc. We “Russians” were concerned, being the smallest group of trainees in the largest community, but lucked out that a PCV who lives and works in Ialoveni asked us to help her with a seminar she was planning for girls 12-18 years old. She had a doctor scheduled to come speak about STDs, and asked us to talk about abstinence and self-esteem. We did some research on the internet, got some quotes and info we could use, and asked Anya to help us translate the materials into Russian. I really wanted to involve her in the activity, since she just turned 18, and I wasn’t sure she would go to the seminar “on her own” since it might not seem too cool. She was a great help, and I’m glad she got to hear the presentations, as well.
There is basically no sex education in schools here. Alyona said many parents are not comfortable talking to their kids about sex, either, so many young people are uninformed, or worse, wrongly informed about sex and STDs. There’s been a lot of talk in our house about a 15-year old girl in Anya’s school who just had a baby, and clearly there’s a great need for young people to learn about the “facts of life” in a formal setting.
Well, we had our own unique problems to deal with for our presentation, and I think we were pretty darn creative! We made flashcards with short statements, which we read aloud and asked the girls to move to one side of the room or the other if they agreed or disagreed with the statement. Things like “Having sex is essential to becoming an adult”; “If you are in love, you have to have sex”; “I think most of my friends are having sex”; etc. We opened with this activity, which kind of got the girls moving around (which was essential after the doctor talked in a monotone for 60+ minutes straight about anatomy and STDs!!).
Anya had printed questions for us onto flipchart paper, which we then read aloud and asked the girls to answer. Things like “What does ‘abstinence’ mean?” “Why would you choose to be abstinent?” and “What can you do instead of having sex?” The girls slowly warmed up to the interactive nature of our presentation, and Anya wrote their responses onto the flip chart for us.
Lastly, Anya had printed for us some quotes from teenagers about why they had chosen to be abstinent, and we asked different girls to read aloud the quotes.
All in all, I think it went pretty darn well for (1) our first presentation on abstinence ever; and (2) our first presentation in Russian! Since Emily and I will both be working a lot with young people, the activity will likely be one that we repeat in our communities at some point.
Anka in Kyiv 