The “Awareness Workshops on Gender, Sexuality and Health” project carried out by Promundo, sponsored by Petrobrás, comes to an end with a balance of 68 workshops held, in 36 cities in 13 states in Brazil, reaching more than 1800 people.
Carried out throughout 2011 and early 2012, the project aimed to offer tools for the work of promoting gender equality and the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young people – based on the techniques developed by the H and M programs –, and involved health, education and social assistance professionals, residents and community leaders in a space for reflection and action planning.
Changes in attitudes
It was possible to notice, through assessments based on the GEM scale, some significant changes in participants' perceptions about attitudes related to gender equality and sexuality. In Ribeirão Pires (São Paulo), for example, 66.7% of participants stated, before the workshop, that boys could play with dolls; After the workshop, 100% of participants agreed with the statement. In Rio Formoso (Pernambuco), 50% of those interviewed stated that it would be bold for a woman to ask her partner to take an HIV test; at the end of the meeting, this number dropped to 25%. Demands were also highlighted for a proposal to continue the workshops: expanding the discussion on violence and including the topic of fatherhood.
The next step will be the publication of the notebook “Awareness raising about Gender, Sexuality and Health: ideas and experiences” which will systematize the process and reports on experiences and changes in attitudes, in addition to the action plans developed by the participants. A documentary video will also be released in the first half of 2012.
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