“Sometimes, adults provide a wrong understanding in explaining reproductive health and even still consider it a very taboo thing," coordinator for partnerships and community empowerment of the Secondary Education and Special Education Working Group of the ministry, Tina Jupartini, said at a webinar on “Reproductive Health Education for Children with Intellectual Disabilities,” which was followed from here on Tuesday.
According to her, teachers’ involvement in providing reproductive health education to intellectually disabled children, especially those aged around 15 years old, is crucial because they have little knowledge about the concepts of female and male, puberty, pregnancy, healthy relationships, and how to protect themselves from sexual violence, among other things.
Based on data from the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, as many as 8,800 cases of violence against women were recorded in November 2021. The highest number of cases or 591 cases involved sexual violence.
Children with disabilities are very vulnerable to falling victim to sexual violence, which may even be perpetrated by those closest to them, Jupartini said.
"This makes children with disabilities lead insecure lives and feel depressed," she added.
To that end, she said the Education Ministry has collaborated with the Health Ministry to conduct a “Master Teacher” empowerment program to train potential teachers on reproductive health education.
The program is supported by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and Rutgers WPF Indonesia.
The program begins with a Training of Trainer (ToT) on reproductive health education with participants being special school teachers, Jupartini informed.
“In 2022, the master teacher has disseminated knowledge and good practices to other special school teachers whom we call partner teachers, and the master teachers assist the (program) implementation by partner teachers," she said.
Related news: Reproductive health education needed to fight child trafficking: BKKBN
Related news: Girls need reproductive health education to prevent sexual violence
Translator: Suci N, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
