Religion and the Sexual Health of Teens in Eldo’s

(Known on Bruinou.com as the resident sociologist, Tessie – Tessa Dooms relates some details of a research workshop conducted recently with the youth of Eldorado Park, Johannesburg) 

"Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity.  Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free from coercion, discrimination and violence.  For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled."
The World Health Organization

The African Religious Health Assets Programme (ARHAP)  recently embarked on a Participatory Inquiry aimed at accessing the sexual health worlds of young people and how religious organizations can contribute positively to the sexual health of young people in South Africa. On the 24TH and 26TH July ARHAP hosted a set of workshops in Eldorado Park intended to strengthen the positive contributions of religious organizations in Eldo’s through dialogue and networking. On the 24th a workshop was held with young people from Eldo’s, representing different religious traditions and schools.

The workshop gathered insights into the sexual and religious worlds of these youths and served as a launching pad for the Leadership Workshop held on the 26th. At  this workshop, a range of religious, NGO, school and health leaders from within the community came together to sit around the same table for the first time to discuss the sexual lives and health of young people in the community. I would like to share some of the insights gained and outcomes of this project.  The community leaders were asked to map the positive and negative elements in Eldo’s that impacted on the sexual health of young people. Over 700 religious organizations, as well as a few NGO’s and 3 public clinics were mapped as positive contributors to sexual health. Several bottle stores, nightclubs, public parks and “the Jungle” were mapped as being negative contributors. Interestingly, sporting facilities were considered ambiguous in there impact, as the group believed that while sporting activities are good alternatives to drugs and alcohol for instance, sports events in the community often double up as sites of behaviour that leads to risky sex among youth.

The young people provided interesting information about the ways in which they learn about and the sources that influence their sexual behaviour. The group suggested that friends, media and clinics were the most influential sources about sex. These sources had in common that they largely encouraged sexual activity either by introducing them to various sexual acts or promoting sex safe based on the assumption that they invariably will have sex. When asked why religion did not impact the lives of young people in Eldo’s, the answer overwhelmingly was, “religion only tells us what not to do”. Sex before marriage is a sin- this was reported as the message that they received most prominently from religion, not only did the young people know this message,  90% agreed with it. However, they made clear that the practices of youth, even religious youth, were not at all in line with that message.

We tried to understand this by exploring sex as referred to in this message. For the young people it emerged that considering that they could think of at least 37 sexual acts young people engage in, they did not know what ‘sex’ was being referred to in the religious message. This shocked the community leaders because they realized that they were not only out of touch with the sexual contexts of young people, but consequently, the messages they were providing lacked details to address the real decisions young people need to make. The vague religious message is also in steep competition with very prominent and detailed messages from peers and the media on sex. This was one of many sobering moments of realization.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Both the leaders and the young people were asked to brainstorm new strategies for helping young people live healthier sexual lives. The response from both groups was innovative and inspiring. Suggestions included, parenting classes focused on communication and sex; mentoring programmes; involving youth in developing strategies; marriage preparation talks (as 60% of young people said they did not know what a good marriage is), to name a few.

What was both a unique and striking feature of the Eldorado Park community was the capacity and potential for progress embedded in the networks within the community. Schools are connected to churches, many NGO’s are religious or support religious organizations, NGO’s work closely with clinics etc. And so, there exists a great deal of integrative community engagement, however, the group realized that they need to consolidate these networks more clearly and it became obvious that they had not considered employing these networks to focus on the sexual health of young people in Eldo’s. The most important thing to emerge from this workshop was a new mandate that originated from the young people themselves in the youth workshop, on what issues around sex, sexuality and sexual health they needed to have addressed and proposed strategies from both workshops will now be developed and taken further.

For any further information about this project or to get access to the full data reports, please contact me at tessagd@yahoo.com