On 21 September, Association for Education and Family Care (AEFC) held a meeting in the framework of the project titled “An educated woman—a healthy society”. This meeting was attended by 35 female students of 8th and 9th grades of Shaban Golaj Elementary School in Lipovec village, Gjakova.
The general goal of this meeting was raising the women’s awareness of the risk of unwanted pregnancies, right to health care, and risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS.
“Taking into account the experience of the organization and field research, it was considered reasonable to deal with this matter because the girls’ level of knowledge on sexual health is extremely low and cases where they have been infected by such diseases have not been uncommon”, Fikrije Komoni from AEFC said.
The students were given explanations about HIV virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the causes HIV which might turn into AIDS, symptoms, ways of transmission and prevention. In addition, other topics were also discussed which were to the interest of the women students such as the menstrual cycle; the young girls were offered the opportunity to hold consultations and conversations with gynecologists.
One of the students said that, “This is the first time we were lectured on these topics” and that during this meeting “we have learnt a lot about reproduction health”. She further added that at the beginning of the lecture, when the topic was introduced, she felt shy because she could discuss about these topics only with her mother, sister or female friends and not in the presence of many girls.
At the end of the meeting, the girls were given a questionnaire which contained basic questions on reproduction health, which will help girls draw conclusions on their knowledge on this field relevant to their age.
This project was supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) and funded by the European Union Office in Kosovo.
