After twelve weeks of classes, my group of sex ed health promotors graduated from their course! The program is called “Escojo Mi Vida” which literally translates to “I choose my life”. The classes, which I taught once a week, covered subjects such as self-esteem, values, decision making, abstinence, STDs, HIV/AIDS and adolescent pregnancy. A lot of kids came at first, but the kids who graduated where the ones who came to ten out of the twelve classes and passed a test to prove that they knew the information.
At the beginning of the course there would be thirty kids in the classroom, some of which had come because they were interested in the material and others who came because they just wanted to hang out with the friends. Eventually the kids who weren’t all that dedicated or interested in the class stopped coming and we ended up with fifteen kids who prepared to graduate.
The days leading up to the graduation were a bit hectic but preparing for the graduation was good for the kids because they learned how to plan a big event. The kids had to break into committees to decide on the agenda, what food they were going to serve and how they were going to decorate the place. They also had to assign which graduates were going to talk at the graduation, and the last two days of the event, with the help of my dad, they did some acting exercises and planned a skit about adolescent pregnancy.
The day of the graduation the kids all showed up three hours early to decorate the community center and make last minute plans. An hour before it was supposed to start all the kids went home to get ready. At seven o’clock when the graduates were supposed to be there only about five kids had arrived, and by seven thirty when the event was supposed to start there were more little kids waiting for the graduation to begin than there were graduates in the community center. My parents kept asking me if we shouldn’t go round up the kids and other community members so that we could get started. Being used to Dominican time, I told them not to worry, and sure enough by about 8:15 everyone was in their seats and ready to go.
The graduation started off with a prayer, then I welcomed and thanked everyone for coming, then the students talked about what Escojo was, what they had learned and what their plans for the future were. They preformed their drama and then our community leader said a few “words of support”. The kids then had to do a type of “swearing in” where they each had to stand in front of the audience and say what they chose for their life, for example “I choose a healthy life” or “I choose to help and educate others” or “I choose to prevent STDs”. After that they received their certificates of completion and played a “Perico Ripiado” (a type of merengue) that they had composed about Escojo. Our community leader wanted us to march around town so that more people knew what this graduation was all about (this was the first graduation to ever happen in Las Pajas). We marched to another neighborhood chanting and cheering and then played the song again. We finished by going back to the community center, handing out a small snack and playing the song once more.
It was fun to have the graduation because it awarded the kids who had worked hard during the course and it allowed for the community to understand better what Escojo was and what we will be doing in the future. The kids also had a great time and were still talking about how much fun the graduation was several days later—that goes to show that they enjoyed it and were proud of themselves, probably the most important part of having the graduation!
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