Katherine Tate-Bradish Named Associate Expert for Sex Education and HIV Prevention
Katherine Tate-Bradish was recently appointed
project leader of a new initiative to train large numbers of African sex
educators in rural areas and provide the means to sustain their work through
private enterprise.
An American,
Tate-Bradish has many years of experience as an educator and advocate for rural
women and children. In 2004, she began developing a sex education curriculum
that is widely taught in Kenya and has found favor among women and youth groups.
The curriculum
includes the fabrication of sanitary napkins by local artisans. The scarcity
and cost of sanitary napkins in rural areas is a major problem for local women
and a significant impediment to girls’ education.
Our sex education
curriculum, she says, evolved organically with input from Kenyan teachers, high
school students and women’s groups. “I call it The Sexual Health Alphabet: HIV/AIDS,
other STDS, and the ABCs,” she says. In sex education circles, the ‘ABC’
concept refers to comprehensive education: Abstain, Be
Faithful, use Condoms Correctly and Consistently.
The training takes six
days, and includes pre-and post-testing on factual understanding, daily
assessments, and group and individual practice teaching. Most of the
trainees are women farmers. Local church groups, HIV support groups, and
women’s organizations also play a role.
The two-year
initiative, which is now being organized by Tate-Bradish in collaboration with
ACH and the Vumilia
orphan’s home in Western Kenya, will provide proof of concept and seek ways to
extend the curriculum to large numbers of rural educators. Vumilia is an ACH member organization that
works with women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.
An estimated 50,000
Kenyans have been taught by local educators trained using Tate-Bradish’s curriculum . In
addition to scaling up, the project will also develop means to help sex
educators sustain themselves financially.
