CubaPLUS Magazine

Forums Promote Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Cuba

By: Prensa Latina
Jun 13, 2018
Forums Promote Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Cuba

Experts, scholars and sexuality activists from a dozen countries will discuss in Cuba the challenges of promoting comprehensive sexuality education, a specialized source confirmed.

Ada Caridad Alfonso Rodriguez, president of the Scientific Committee of the 8th Cuban Congress on Education and Sexual Orientation, told Prensa Latina the event will coincide with other related forums at the Havana Convention Center, June 25-29.

'It is a Cuban congress with international participation, with very relevant activities, and so far participants from Ecuador, Chile, the United States, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States have confirmed their participation, but other foreign registrations are still awaited, the specialist explained.

She also pointed out that the Third Meeting of Experts on Comprehensive Sexuality Education Strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Sixth International Colloquium on Transidentities, Gender and Culture will be held in parallel.

The workshop 'Accelerating the process of comprehensive sexuality education in Latin America and the Caribbean: the contribution of UN technical guidelines' will also be held.

Alfonso Rodriguez indicated that there will be forums dedicated to the youngest researchers and educators, and the book 'The social integration of transsexual people in Cuba', by Mariela Castro Espin, director of the National Centre for Sexual Education (CENESEX), promoter of the congress, will be presented.

The conference will open with the symposium 'Advances, challenges and lessons learned in scaling up comprehensive sexuality education, organized by the UN Population Fund and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).

Alfonso specified that there will be three conferences, 15 panels, 12 symposia, coordinated discussion tables, two workshops and sessions on free topics, and pre-congress courses related to education and transidentities.

For this, she said, we will have the support of teachers from Uruguay, Ecuador, Cuba and Canada. One such course will be run by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

From Italy we are fortunate to have Professor Paolo Valerio from Naples with us, who will share training on the social integration of transgender people.

In response to the question of those who will speak at the Congress, Ada Alfonso pointed out that there will not only be space for scholars, but also for transgender activists who will present papers and make very strong commitments to systematize years of experiences.

'It is also excellent that activists from all the provinces can participate in order to socialize the work that is organized in depth throughout Cuba, since it is often not very easy to communicate between them,' she added.

The Cuban specialist expressed 'legitimate pride' in the awarding of the 2018 Annual Health Prize to CENESEX on June 8 for its work in this field.

Mariela Castro was also honored with an award for her life's work and for her book 'La integración social de las personas transsexuales en Cuba',( Social Integration of Transsexual People in Cuba) and a mention for her and Alfonso for their volume 'Violencia de género, prostitución y trata de personas' ('Gender Violence, prostitution and human trafficking').

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