Since 2007, Promundo has been developing actions to promote gender equality in public schools in Rio de Janeiro. Due to this approach, in 2010, we became part of the State Management Group of the Health and Prevention Program in Schools – GGE-RJ/SPE, which is made up of civil society organizations and representatives of the State Departments of Health and Education.
Responsible for articulating partners and actions in schools in the different regions of the state of Rio de Janeiro, GGE-RJ brings to life the ideas and objectives of Health and Prevention in Schools – an initiative of the Ministries of Health and Education, launched in 2003 to encourage joint actions to combat the AIDS epidemic. Thus, we hope to contribute to the promotion of sexual rights and reproductive rights of adolescents and young people in our schools, by enabling the formation of spaces for free discussion and reflection on topics such as the right to health, gender, sexual diversity, ethnic-racial relations, reduction of damage and youth protagonism. In addition to activities with young people, training and action planning meetings on sexual health and reproductive health were also held with teachers from different disciplines and distribution of educational materials on SPE themes.
However, achieving the objectives for which the SPE was designed has not been an easy task. In addition to the unavailability of resources to guarantee work in schools, there has been an impediment to the dissemination of educational materials designed to discuss topics such as gender, sexual rights and reproductive rights and sexual diversity. For the second time in two years, material to support the debate was vetoed by the government. After the controversies surrounding the so-called “anti-homophobia kit” and its ban by the Ministry of Education, Comics – Health and Prevention in Schools (HQ SPE) were vetoed by the Ministry of Health from being used by the program and can no longer be used. used in SPE training workshops. The justification of the Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, was that the educational material – approved and recommended by the previous management of the Ministry – had not been endorsed nor was it in accordance with the ministry's “new determinations” regarding AIDS prevention. Apparently, the ban is linked to the interference of religious groups in Congress in government actions related to sexuality.
Civil society has taken a stance against initiatives that affect the secularity of the State. AIDS program managers and technicians also expressed their concern about the issue. At the beginning of April, the Management of STD/AIDS, Blood and Blood Products/Secretariat of State for Health took a position on the matter in a note, in which it stated that “the dissemination of correct information and the creation of quality content on the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases are essential strategies in tackling vulnerability factors to these diseases”. It is yet another challenge for the Brazilian response to the AIDS epidemic.
Obviously, the ban and what it represents – some of the barriers and prejudices that revolve around discussions about sexuality, sexual rights and reproductive rights in the country – go against the trends of the epidemic. According to data relating to the period 1980-2009, released by the Department of STD, AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (www.aids.gov.br/pagina/aids-no-brasil) of the Ministry of Health itself, there was an increase in the proportion of cases of AIDS in young men who have sex with men. Furthermore, sexual transmission is the main form of HIV transmission in the population between 13 and 24 years old, representing 59.3% of cases. Another 31% of total infections among young people occur due to sharing contaminated syringes and needles when using injectable drugs. In other words, the lack of access to correct, adequate and unprejudiced information about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases – such as that provided by HQ SPE – is one of the many conditions that favor vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, as well as the lack of access to prevention supplies or the existence of stigma and prejudice.
The possibilities for actions in schools are countless and challenging, but, above all, they are still extremely necessary. They should be carried out systematically, with care and sensitivity to address difficult topics and confront prejudice. The ministerial veto on educational material leaves us even further away from this path.
Danielle Lopes Bittencourt – Project Coordinator at Promundodo
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