Five Brave SERniña Girl Leaders Speak Up About Consent
Written by Erik Pocasangre & Annie Vanderboom
SERniña (by REALgirl) is proud to be a thought leader and member of several socially focused Guatemalan networks. RIDAVS (Interinstitutional Network for Referral and Assistance to Victims of Sacatepéquez), promoted by the Public Ministry of Guatemala, is one of these networks. Alongside other NGOs, civil organizations, and public and religious institutions, SERniña helps develop RIDAVS' social and wellness activities to support the communities of Sacatepéquez, the department in which Antigua and surrounding towns are located. (For our Northern readers, a department is analogous to a state or a province.)
On September 21, 2018, SERniña was one of the leading organizers to help launch RIDAVS' first Sacatepéquez Youth Congress. Nearly 300 youth attended, representing the majority of cities and villages in the department. SERniña collaborated with WINGS Guatemala — recognized for their work in sexual and reproductive health — to lead an engaging workshop on affirmative consent and pregnancy prevention in adolescents.
Over 300 youth from across Sacatepequez participated in RIDAVS' first Sacatepéquez Youth Congress. Alongside WINGS, SERniña provided Affirmative Consent "mini workshops" to all 300 over the course of the day. SERniña Director of Operations, Erik Pocasangre, also sat on the discussion panel of the event.
Girl Leaders step up
One of the objectives of the Congress was that the young people who attended would convey new information to their peers, lead initiatives to spread the word with peers in their communities, and inspire administrators and leaders within their schools to support their initiatives. After attending the SERniña/WINGS workshop at the RIDVAS congress, Oneida, Lesbia, Mirna, Séfora, Ale, five enthusiastic change-makers of INEB School of Santiago Sacatepéquez stepped up to the challenge.
SERniña Director of Operations and RIDAVS Liason Erik Pocasangre worked alongside the girls for two three-hour sessions to review key material and create their plan of action to diffuse information they'd learned about affirmative consent and pregnancy prevention to youth in their school community.
The girls decided that they would lead mini-workshops for their peers. The planning and implementation of the workshops was a learning experience in and of itself, as the five girls had to develop confidence in themselves and their voices and learn to trust their ability to be leaders of change.
During the planning sessions, the girls participated in activities to discover their truest selves and their strengths, uncover the vital force that self-love brings, recognize some of their fears, and face them with courage. They reflected on themselves and the collective feelings of youth.
Those hours of hard mental and creative work allowed the girls to recognize the power we all have to create, to form, to have intentions, feelings, and dreams and bring them to life. The girls' workshop preparation reaffirmed that their abilities are without a doubt powerful and wonderful.
Erik, Oneida, Lesbia, Mirna, Séfora, Ale worked together for 6 hours (2 three-hour sessions) to plan review all key material and plan out an engaging and dynamic workshop for their peers.
These five all-star girls went above and beyond to step up as leaders. Even after their planning sessions with Erik, they continued to prepare materials, conduct research, and strengthen their knowledge on the issues. They asked their mothers and grandmothers for support. In Guatemala's conservative culture, this was a particularly brave act, but they found that it prompted much-needed but often too taboo conversations to flourish in their homes. And some mothers and families got on board, even taking their daughters to clinics and info centers to get more materials and information.
The girls' planning culminated in a three-hour workshop for a group of 30 girls and boys in their school. It was the first time that the girls were in front of that many of their peers, articulating the importance of sexual health education and consent — topics that are still very taboo in Guatemalan society.
In Guatemala, it is not easy or common to speak about the body through a lens of freedom of expression and choice. It's hard and scary for almost any teenager to talk about self-love, sexuality, bodily autonomy, harassment, abuse prevention, healthy relationships — and even more so here.
Oneida, Lesbia, Mirna, Séfora, Ale show off the poster they designed and created to support their Consent Presentation. The words on the poster indicate the key concepts and indicators of affirmative consent.
Difficult but necessary conversations
The reality is that young people in Guatemala are highly vulnerable to becoming victims of toxic relationships and physical and sexual violence. The numbers are alarming. Thousands of adolescent children are sexually abused by relatives every year, and 89 percent of rapists are family members. Of those, 30 percent are parents.1 In the first six months of 2019, there were over 700 cases of girls under 14 becoming pregnant as a result of statutory rape, and over 66, 000 teen girls became pregnant overall. It is important to note that most teen pregnancies go unreported in Guatemala, so the real numbers are much higher. 2 This problem needs to be addressed in depth and comprehensively. At SERniña, we believe that comprehensive sexual health education for both girls and boys is the key to changing those numbers.
For each of the girls, the drive to talk to their peers about consent and sexual safety was born of the concern they feel for their classmates. Their goal was to help other youth better understand and deal with the consequences of the decisions they make about their lives and their sexuality.
As a youth program, SERniña’s investing in the potential of youth is our driving force. We believe that the next generation will change Guatemala and the world.
Working with youth renews our hope in the future, while at the same time reminding us to recognize the capacity, wisdom, and strength that allow young people to begin to make decisions for their own autonomy and authenticity. Through our workshops and programs, we hope to give youth the tools to serve as empowered and brave community leaders.
The Ripple Effect
We are so proud of One, Less, Mirna, Séfora, Ale, for enthusiastically deciding to take on this challenge. They created a complete workshop, acquired new information, practiced sorority, strengthened their leadership skills and confidence, and generated tools that will allow them to continue to share important information with people in their community and beyond. They set a goal and achieved… with independence, hard-work, and resiliency. These five girls planted a seed for change that will radiate throughout their school and community for years to come.
Beyond the crucial sexual health information they shared, the girls also showed their entire school community that girls, and youth in general, have a voice. They demonstrated by example that young people are able to lead others and create remarkable positive change.
We hope that not only do these five change-makers continue to thrive, but that their bravery also inspires other young girls around them to believe in themselves, use their voice, and know their powerful potential to become the change that our world needs!
Erik, Oneida, Lesbia, Mirna, Séfora, Ale, and their school peers pose for a picture after participating in the Consent Presentation led by our five young leaders.
Sources
1. Bevan, Anna-Claire. Guatemala has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Latin America, and it’s getting worse. The Tico Times. June 16, 2014. http://ticotimes.net/2014/06/16/guatemala-has-the-highest-teenage-pregnancy-rate-in-latin-america-and-its-getting-worse
2. OSAR Guatemala: https://osarguatemala.org/embarazos-y-registro-de-nacimientos-de-madres-adolescentes-ano-2019/