The visit took place in the period of October 8-9, 2009. During the Day 1 there were a total of 27 participants: out of which 12 students and 15 school staff members. Day One Activities started at 13:00 – and lasted up untill 16:30 During the Day One both teachers and students worked together as part of the same group. The project team wanted to provide a platform in which the same issues are discussed at the same time by both groups. The activity went really well, thought some students shared at the end of the workshop that they would have prefered to work without teachers.

Day Two gathered together representatives of the local community and there were 13 participants including the school director and 2 teachers. Day Two started at 9:00 and ended at 12:30.

Main observations vs. expectations from the course:

Sexual and reproductive health education is a tabu topic given that many students are from the boarding schools or even if they live in a family it is a tabu topic there as well. (By School director)

Use of alcohol and tobacco is a very big problem at the level of this target group. Because of the alcohol many other behavior based problems arise. The influence of the peers is very big and students start smoking, drinking at an early age, etc (By the Police inspector – working on youth based problems)

- Students are informed (know a lot about different sexual behaviors), but are not aware of the consequences of the risky sexual behaviors. (Biology teacher)

- The teaching materials and teaching guidebook should provide sufficient methods, exercises, that would make students be more opened in discussing these issues, as it is really difficult to make students to be open. (Teacher, social pedagog)

- It is really important to inform students on their rights (sexual and reproductive). This will make them stronger/more confident in dealing with human trafficking situations. Not a long time ago the school succeeded to stop/prevent a trafficking situation in which a school student was involved. (Teacher, Social assistant)

- To publish informational flyers for the whole community (Floresti) as it is needed not only for the vocational school but for other schools as well. (City Council, Youth Department)

- Selected teachers should be trained in communication skills very well as the success of the course depends on the teachers’ communication skill. They should be able to be very open. This course should be mandatory and not optional. (Regional Educational Department)

- The High school from Floresti implemented the Peer education project (HIV/AIDS prevention), but because it is an extracurricular activity peer educators do it accidentally, during their free time and it is not systemic. The problem of attitudes towards people living with HIV should be addressed (stigma and discrimination). (High school, vice-director)

- The students should know how to protect themselves and protect others (Social assistant)

- I have a 17 years old student and he doesn’t accept talking to me on this issues. He says that he knows it all. Probably it is important to involve a psychologist as part of the course, in order to discuss with students. Students should be informed where to address for what and in what situations. (Family Doctor)

- Vocational School students are a major group risk (70% of STI are from this group risk). Students should be informed on their rights on regards to employment situations as well – this because of the trafficking problem and because of the various employment situations that could involve ‶sexual harassment”. (Gynecologist).

- Besides knowing about their rights, the students should be informed on their obligations/responsibilities as well. It is very important to make some videos in the community and use some videos from other communities and video-educational materials to be used in the course. This will make the impact bigger. (Center for Preventive Medicine)

- The majority of students are from socio-vulnerable groups, (from boarding schools). The risk is very high in trafficking as well. (Vocational School Marculesti, Director)

More details about this TwoDays workshop are available >> HERE