I have been working for a UN organization called UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) for the past 2 years. The primary objectives of UNFPA are achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health, promoting reproductive rights and improving the lives of women and children. While working with UNFPA in Morocco and here in Cairo, I became involved with a peer-to-peer education network for youth called YPEER. The Y-PEER Network consists of 700 non-profit organizations and government agencies in 50 countries. Y-PEER has evolved into the largest growing grassroots network addressing youth needs and two of its most ambitious members, Mohammed Essam and Islam Hisham, are transforming sexual education in Egypt through progressive and innovative thinking.
Islam Hisham and Mohammed Essam work as Reproductive Health Counselors and their collective passions led to the creation of a pioneering health counseling website in Egypt called “Ma3looma,” which means “a piece of information,” in Arabic. “The website seeks to raise awareness about sexual reproductive health and rights for all young people in Egypt,” explained Essam. In response, Hisham added, “The education system in Egypt fails to address sexual education and youth/students throughout the country are being misled and silenced.”
The taboo of comprehensive sexual education in Egypt, and throughout the MENA region as well as many other places in the world, is the result of cultural and religious traditions that often inhibit teachers and relatives from openly discussing and teaching the sexual education and all that it entails. Acutely aware of this problem, Essam and Hisham decided to launch “Ma3looma” as a website and on several social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) to expose young Egyptians to accurate, non-judgmental, holistic sexual/reproductive health-related information so that young people can make independent decisions with knowledge and foresight.
In addition to providing information, Essam and Hisham devised an interactive portal that allows visitors to ask questions anonymously, openly and freely about anything health-related, from sexual and reproductive health/rights, to HIV/AIDS, to condom-usage, to gender-based violence, etc. Given that Egyptian young people aged between 10 and 29 comprise 40% of the Egyptian population, the spread of comprehensive sexual/reproductive information is vital to promote family planning and safety. At this point in time, the website hosts 600,000 visitors per month and its Facebook page has nearly 1,000,000 fans. Islam Hisham and Mohammed Essam’s vision is impacting the lives of literally hundreds and thousands of young people throughout Egypt and the two inspired individuals are this month’s unsung heroes!
WE SAID THIS: Don’t miss Why We Need Sexual Education in Egypt