Bowie Lam, founder of Teen’s Key, and Siti Aishah Hassan Hasri, founder of Spot Community Project, Front & Female Awards winners in Hong Kong and Malaysia respectively, on why it’s high time we address the stigma around sex education and start having open conversations
When Siti Aishah Hassan Hasri takes her sexuality education programmes into Malaysia’s primary schools, it’s not unusual to hear classrooms full of nine-year-olds screaming out the words “vagina”, “vulva” and “penis”. This is part of her mission to remove the embarrassment and stigma that surround sex education. As she takes her programme up through different age groups, she will run through different scenarios; for example, what should a girl do when a partner refuses to put on a condom?
The programmes are delivered through her organisation Spot Community Project, which she launched in Malaysia in 2015. Although Malaysia’s Ministry of Education has officially had a sex education programme since 1982, it has been limited to biological and religious studies. Hassan Hasri put together her own programme based on key lessons and best practices from around the world that began with a menstruation-centric programme focused on girls, before expanding to tackle a broad range of areas to educate both boys and girls: from relationships and rights to understanding gender, violence and staying safe; skills for health and well-being, including body image and self-care; and the human body and development, including puberty and reproductive health. Since its inception, Spot Community Project has reached more than 30,000 young people.
“Sexuality education is something that is lacking because, especially in Malaysia, we all live in a direct result of the lack of sexuality education. There’s still unwanted pregnancy, there are still baby-dumping cases and there is still infanticide happening. And girls are still blamed for all this and boys are still spared,” says Hassan Hasri.
A lack of sex education is apparent in Hong Kong, too, and is one of the factors that leads to the issue of underage sex workers in the city. Bowie Lam’s Teen’s Key provides support for these young women, and helps them to escape the industry, while also delivering sex education classes more broadly and free STD screening.
Lam, who recently stepped down as executive director but remains a strategic advisor to Teen’s Key, which she founded in 2012, started out engaging women working in nightclubs to tackle STDs, HIV and unwanted pregnancies; later, having seen demand for testing, yet the stigmatisation and a lack of knowledge in young people around the topic, introduced Teen's Key's sex education programme in schools.
“In Hong Kong, sex education is still a taboo,” says Lam, something she finds at odds with how developed the city is. But she cites as responsible a combination of Chinese culture and the fact that half of the city’s secondary schools are Christian religious schools and so determine the type of sex education they give—some simply proposing abstinence.
"Research shows that comprehensive sex education is most effective to prevent high-risk behaviour, sexual violence, sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancy, HIV and STDs"
“Young people in Hong Kong are curious and desperate [for information]. It’s normal at that age to want to know more, but when they go online, the information is not necessarily accurate,” says Lam. “What we are worried about is that the age of accessing the internet is getting younger and younger, and the content is there. We have to educate our young people as soon as possible.”
Hassan Hasri adds: “Most of the content is misleading, and perpetuates patriarchy, perpetuates gender-based violence, perpetuates stigma and fear. It does not cater to your emotional and mental perspective when it comes to sex and sexuality.” Her programme seeks to address all these aspects and more.
Both Hassan Hasri and Lam have faced challenges when it comes to providing their educational services to young people and working with schools where the topic is often not a priority. For Lam in Hong Kong, the government’s approach is that religious and biological education that relates to sex is adequate, and there is insufficient time and resources to attempt to provide more, while Hassan Hasri also faces the issue that more urgent things—particularly those that are measurable—because how do you measure sex education?—are often prioritised.
While technology can help with reaching more young people and addressing resource limitations, Hassan Hasri is concerned about the potential loss of important engagement and human-to-human connection. One way that both women ensure positive engagement is to involve young people in their initiatives. Spot Community Project’s volunteers range from 14 to 25 years old, so the age difference between beneficiaries of the programmes and those delivering the information is small. Lam has employed a team of young ambassadors to help with cataloguing information on her organisation’s website and to add relevant and relatable real-life scenarios to help young people work through certain situations.
Both stress that better and more sweeping sex education has broad benefits, not only to individuals but to wider society. “Research shows that comprehensive sex education is most effective to prevent high-risk behaviour, sexual violence, sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancy, HIV and STDs,” says Lam.
“It helps prevent a lot of tragedies,” says Hassan Hasri, “from having a weird first time doing anything sexual and preventing tragedies like heartbreak. When we deliver our programmes, we also talk about relationships and emotions, how to manage your parents and partners, and how to balance other friendships. Consequences are sometimes unspeakable, and it breaks families apart. When you have good information, you have wanted pregnancies. There are a lot of tragedies that can be prevented.”
“Young people are totally ready to have open discussion,” adds Lam. “They are really eager to talk about this.” For both Lam and Hassan Hasri, it’s essential that when they do, the conversations are comprehensive, accurate and engaging, which will help to challenge mindsets and take away the taboo around talking about sex.