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Healthy Sexuality: The Story of Love

UNIFEM, UNESCO and Thai Nippon Rubber Company meet at the National Science Museum. Photo credit: UNESCO.

In Bangkok Thailand, UNIFEM has joined UNESCO and National Science Museum of Thailand (NSM), with support from Thai Health Promotion Foundation (SSS), Women’s Health Advocacy Foundation (WHAF), UNAIDS, Thai Nippon Rubber Company, Plan Thailand, and others, to develop a major exhibition, Healthy Sexuality: The Story of Love. The exhibition will be mounted at NSM for one year, from June 2010 to June 2011, with scaled-down versions traveling around the country for another two years. This will be a major educational resource for schools trying to provide age appropriate sexuality education to Thai adolescents. Curricular materials are being developed to ensure that the visit will have a critical and on-going educational impact.

A life size doll created by the museum that measures how hard you can hug. Photo credit: UNESCO.

At least 1.2 million visitors come to the National Science Museum each year, with about 600,000 in the targeted age group.  Taking students out of the school setting, and using science museums to deliver objective, neutral, accurate information about all aspects of healthy sexuality is a new modality in Asia and the Pacific. We think of it as a “backdoor” to the curriculum, an innovative formal/non-formal approach designed to meet the needs of adolescents by simply answering their questions directly and without judgment.  All elements in the exhibition were either scripted by young Thais or vetted by them.  Major topical areas of the exhibition include Love and Romance; Relationships and Communications; Sexuality, Birth and Contraception; STIs and HIV/AIDS; and My Choice for a Healthy Life.