“My Health is more important than Taboos”
UNFPA Jordan, the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health, partnered with Kidoz Times to produce a media series titled, “My Health is more important than Taboos”, to promote positive attitudes towards sexual and reproductive health among youth and adolescents, and raise their awareness on sexual and reproductive health rights and gender-based violence.
“We approached Kidoz Times because we believe in working for and with youth and adolescents to create content that would connect with their peers and help in countering the misinformation around sexual and reproductive health and the stigma associated with it”, said Sanad Nawar, Youth Program Officer at UNFPA Jordan.
Kidoz Times is the first media platform in Jordan to be run by youth. They publish a quarterly newspaper and create content for a digital platform comprising a variety of media programs such as, the Voice of Youth Podcast, the Kidoz Street Vox Pop Program, the Video Interview Program, the University Ambassadors Program, and the Writers Team. The variety of media programs provides youth and adolescents with opportunities to experiment with different media and develop their skills in more than one area of creative industry.
“Collaborating with UNFPA on this initiative was an opportunity to increase adolescents’ and youth’s knowledge on sexual and reproductive health, which is a priority for our organization”, says Miral, Kidoz Times Founder and CEO
Within days of announcing the media project in the Kidoz network, many applications were sent by adolescents eager to be selected for the media series production.
After the review of applications and selection process, a team of 15 to 19 year-old writers, directors and producers was formed. From there onwards, Abdallah, Waseem, Hala, Ghazal, Sima, Lina, Majida, Yasmine, AbdelKarim and Jamaleddine, began a five-month journey of creative exploration and knowledge sharing.
“I was eager to develop the content for the series. I was sure that the content would resonate with many of the adolescents and youth audiences in Jordan”, said Hala, 16, one of the producers of “My Health is more important than Taboos” media series.
To begin the process, the production team sent a questionnaire to youth and adolescents in Kidoz’s network to identify the topics for each episode. Y-PEER network provided the production team with training on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender-based violence, to build their knowledge and capacity, and guide the process of content development.
“The training helped me in grasping concepts of sexual and reproductive health rights and gender-based violence in a more concrete way. This has really helped me in gaining the confidence I needed to create content for “My Health is more important than Taboos”, said Majida, 15 years-old, one of the writers on the media series.
Over the course of five months, the team produced episodes for KTV (Kidoz TV), VOX POP videos for Kidoz Street and an interview with the UNFPA Representative in Jordan, Ms. Enshrah Ahmed, to shed light on cultural beliefs and social norms that impede the advancement of sexual and reproductive health rights, and the prevention of gender-based violence.
Reflecting on his experience during the production of the series, Youth Project Manager, Abdallah Masaeed, said, “although we received negative comments online, we kept going because it was important to the team to advocate for health and well-being. And sexual and reproductive health is intrinsic to health and wellbeing”.
“In the absence of educational frameworks to support young people’s access to comprehensive sexuality education, the progress that we hope to achieve in the reduction of misinformation and stigmatizing social beliefs, requires a collective effort from all of society”, said Ms.Enshrah Ahmed, UNFPA Representative in Jordan.
During the past year, “My Health is More Important than Taboos” series reached more than 200,000 online viewers.
About UNFPA Jordan
UNFPA Jordan advocates for the integration of sexual and reproductive health in standard educational curricula, while supporting national strategies and policies to improve the access of youth to sexual and reproductive health information. UNFPA supports The National Youth Empowerment Strategy, the National Reproductive Health and Rights Strategy, and the Strategy for Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities, among others.
