Balance AC

Access to sexual health and the enjoyment of sexual rights requires access to information and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). With it, people can make autonomous decisions that place our well-being at the center in the exercise of our sexuality. According to UNFPA and WHO, CSE has a significant impact on increasing the use of barrier methods and contraceptives to prevent STIs and unwanted pregnancies, reduces risk behaviors, prevents violence and discrimination. It is also a way to strengthen the skills, knowledge and decision-making capacity of adolescents.

That is why  free, autonomous and pleasurable exercise of sexuality requires that all people, regardless of our characteristics and contexts, be able to access CSE. However, according to recent research done by the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute (ILSB), only 50% of those who attend secondary education have access to EIS. This data comes from interviews and information provided  by the government after it was requested by them. That is to say, even though CSE has been a right in Mexico since 2019, half of the young people in school are not really exercising this right. This, according to the National Statistics Institute (INEGI), means that more than 3 million adolescents in high school do not receive the benefits of CSE!

Furthermore, the ILSB investigation shows that this problem partially arises because there is no budget for CSE actions at shchools, –this is especially true in the more marginalized communities-, or there is lack of  personnel trained to deliver CSE, so they cannot provide it properly.

In addition to the scarce or non-existent accessibility to CSE in some contexts, where there are sexuality education strategies being implemented, the vast majority of them are usually included in the Biology or Civics curricula. This represents a problem because instead of placing sexuality as an integral element of people, it reduces it to reproduction and the prevention of risk behaviours. This short vision is limited to providing information on biology that seeks to prevent unplanned pregnancies or STIs, which leaves aside the need for adolescents, to acquire not only information, but tools, inputs and skills for their social and emotional development, which put pleasure at the center and ensure their overall well-being. Therefore, for us it is vital to build alternatives that approach CSE in a playful and comprehensive way and that aim to ensure that adolescents are the ones who can contribute to peer education and strengthen their leadership.

Our solution is to take advantage of the common spaces where adolescents already meet, such as middle schools and high schools, to bring comprehensive sexuality education to adolescents in a fun, entertaining and dynamic way. We aim to foster interest in CSE and transform the ideas people have about sexuality, so that it is perceived as a source of well-being and enjoyment. We want people to know it is ok to have fun while experimenting with it. What we do is assist schools, mainly in marginalized urban areas of Mexico City, to contribute to access to CSE. There, our team performs playful and theatrical performances using entertainment techniques, where we talk about sexuality in a comprehensive way, considering it as an essential aspect of our being. Now, we want to innovate to also incorporate comedy and the use of stand-up techniques in these performances.

In these performances, we touch on topics such as sexual and reproductive rights, consent, pleasure, the construction of healthy relationships (both as a couple and with friends, family, etc.), eroticism, sexual identity, diversity, the recreational use of contraceptive methods, the construction of life plans, abortion, among other aspects. The themes of the performances vary depending on the specific needs that people from the school community share with us and the audience's interest in certain topics.

The purpose of this dynamism is for adolescents to develop an interest in sexuality issues so that they can  later autonomously seek to access more information, name their needs and educate themselves on sexuality. Thus, we aim to ensure that adolescents are the protagonists of their own sexual education process, that they can approach new reliable and friendly information, that they demand their sexual rights and that they can contribute to educating their friends, family and other people in their lives.

Because the conditions of each educational space vary, and many spaces we attend are located on the peripheries and have limited access to technology, network connection, or even the Internet, our performances do not incorporate the use of technologies as such. During activities, even serving groups of up to 100 people, we sometimes lack microphones, even. That is why we are handy and improvise; we use playful and low-production performance techniques and resolution within space. However, in these performances we also call for the use of technologies to expand access to useful, scientific and truthful information about sexuality and the importance of taking advantage of its use to access more information, share content and expand positive messages about sexuality.

Our solution is innovative because it always aims to ensure that enjoyment is at the center, because it seeks to strengthen the leadership and decision-making of adolescents and puts them at the center of their own process of comprehensive sexuality education.  Thus, we distance ourselves from welfare-like solutions that generate vertical dependencies where CSE can only come from one source.

Our solution focuses on strengthening young leadership and generating interest in sexuality issues in adolescents between 11 and 19 years old who attend public secondary and high schools located mainly in marginalized urban areas of Mexico City. Our work contributes transforming the narratives surrounding sexuality to make them brighter, thus, eliminating prejudices and stigma. Likewise, our project seeks to provide truthful, reliable and science-based information on sexuality and promote interest in CSE to position it as a tool that allows us to make decisions about our life, our person and our sexuality to promote the exercise of autonomy.

We trust that our solution has the potential for adolescents to acknowledge themselves as the protagonists of their own lives and that they themselves are the ones who search for information, inputs, tools and skills that are useful to face the barriers that exist in their individual contexts for the exercise their sexual rights and the enjoyment their sexual health.

In adittion, our work contributes to transforming the idea that sexuality is limited to reproduction, biology or that it is an aspect that should be private and silenced, since put putting on performances that use playful tools and that resemble comedy allows people to recognize that CSE can also be fun, social and not necessarily uncomfortable. As a result, people recognize that they can approach channels in which their doubts are answered in a more open manner, that they feel thagt they have more abilities to solve problems and that they transform their immediate realities through their leadership, peer education and openness to bring sexuality issues into their homes, schools, with  friends or partners. Furthermore, it generates significant knowledge where concepts and theories take a backseat and are revealed as key points in the experiences that adolescents live. We believe, therefore, that these interventions have the potential to transform communities to make them more empathetic, inclusive, permissive of the exercise of sexual rights and respectful of individual decisions about each person's sexuality and reproduction.

The Adolescents, Autonomy and Sexuality team is made up only of women under 35 years of age. We carry out our work by recognizing youth as an identity that we must carry with pride and making our voices resonate. We are young people, whose stories were also impacted by the barriers that persist to access CSE and the free and pleasurable exercise of sexuality. We have the conviction that it is through rebellion, enjoyment and play that we want to transform our immediate realities.

From wearing our young identities and recognizing that we cannot do everything alone, we have built solid alliances that allow us to access the specific contexts of adolescents, such as approaching teachers, educational counselors and decision makers. This has made it possible for our performances to have impacted around 550 teenagers in 2023 alone.

In addition, Balance’s auxiliary team that provides secondary support in carrying out our activities in communication, facilitation and direct work with adolescents is also made up of more than 50% by people under 35 years of age. We are a diverse team, mostly made up of women and non-binary people, with different contexts and backgrounds.

A staple of our work is that we believe that decisions must be made by those impacted by their consequences and that adolescents and youth must be the ones who, within their contexts, can think of solutions to meet their own needs with the accompaniment and support of their parents.  We know that it is not our role to be the protagonists or anyone’s saviour, but rather we believe in the need to build autonomy in the community, so that, individually, people can decide for themselves. That is why our work is centered on ground work, listening and collective construction with the people we serve.  This is why our work has as its main source of feedback the testimonies, experiences, doubts and stories of those who work with.

For this reason, we opt for dynamism, to respond specifically to the inputs that adolescents give us in our performances. That is why we want to innovate in our techniques, update ourselves and continue thinking about performance formats that are attractive to adolescents. 

During 2023, we have impacted 556 young people with our performances. These have happened mainly at schools, but some have taken place at community centers and through government invitations. 

Our solution is innovative because it always aims to ensure that enjoyment and autonomy are the key drivers of action. We reckon than strengthening  young leaders and fostering their decision-making proceses allows them to feel empowered, thus letting them be at the center of their own process of comprehensive sexuality education. 

At Balance, we believe that welfare-like solutions, or solutions that only partially resolve problems are not the way to transform realities. We think that real solutions should not be vertical o generate vertical dependencies, but rather mobilize people so that they can, through their own ideas and work, together with their communities, create solutions that adapt to their contexts.

1. Improving access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education in middle schools and high schools in Mexico City 

How: working together with schools to bring performances and interact with teachers so that they feel that they can talk about sexuality in all courses.

2. Recognition of bodily autonomy for young people and adolescents 

How: transforming the narratives regarding sexuality so that it is recognized as a central aspect of our lives that requieres for us to make our own decisions based on information, tools and abilities. 

3. Transformation of communities through youth 

How: Strengthening young leadership so that they can contribute to peer education and to start transforming narratives regarding sexuality within their homes, their schools, communities and relationships. 

The Adolescents, Autonomy and Sexuality has 2 young women as full-time staff and a young woman as a voluntary worker. 

Balance's entire team is made up of 18 people who are full-time staff and who work on communications, adminstration, executive direction, and donor relations, as well as other programs such as Fondo MARIA, Sexual Identity and Freedom and Safe Enviornments. 

Balance is a progressive feminist organization that works at national, regional and international levels to further public policies and programs on sexual and reproductive rights. This work has a particular emphasis on women and young people through active citizenship participation, participatory leadership, and evidence-based policy advocacy.

We have 20 years of work in Mexico, and the Adolescent, Autonomy and Sexuality program has been working under that name since 2012, nevertheless, since 2004, we have been putting on performances using Cabaret techniques. 

As we move forward with our mission, we find it important to seek congruence between our actions towards the outside, daily tasks and decision making towards the interior.

For this reason, we have defined a series of core values that guide our actions. We understand by “value” the compass or the rhythm of the song that defines our individual and collective activism or, more precisely, the framework that delimits from where and how we do what we do. Our core values are the body of ideas that we all share and that anchor our identity as a feminist organization with a vision of inclusive, anti-punitivist and intersectional feminism.

 One of these core values is Intersectionality. At Balance we work for an inclusive, anti-punitivist and diverse vision of the feminist movement, therefore, intersectionality is a central value of our identity. We stand against all forms of violence or oppression and as a feminist organization we stand in solidarity and support social liberation movements. By putting people at the center, we start from their particular and diverse context, recognizing the oppressions that have been exerted on them. Our transinclusive political stance, in favor of sex work, and therefore non-punitive, covers all areas of the organization. Inwards, intersectionality is experienced with a diverse team where identities are respected; with diversity and non-discrimination policies that have a gender and youth perspective. It is also materialized in the diversity of our strategies and programs, as well as in the celebration of creativity, by recognizing the diversity of ways to achieve what we want. Outwardly, intersectionality is practiced by working with different populations (adolescents, youth, women, non-binary people and other people with the capacity to conceive) in the work for sexual justice in general and by building alliances with networks, collectives and organizations that share the value of intersectionality.

As a non for profit organization, we provide value to communities through the impact our work creates on individuals. We contribute to the transformation of more just, equitable and healthy communities through the reinforcement values that promote diversity, inclusion, recognition of young people's power, respect for bodily autonomy, and as a result, sexual and social justice. 

Our performances provide communities with information, new abilities and tools for them to take action and decisions regarding their sexuality,  sexual and reproductive health commodities such as condoms, dental dams, latex gloves and lube. This is important for young people because information alone cannot ensure that we exercise our sexuality in a free and pleasurable way, especially when it comes to marginalized communities, where sexual and reproductive health services are not easily available, and even less for people under age. 

We measure our impact through the stories that communities tell us, how they think that what we provide has impacted and changed their lives. Through our work we have proven that our model works because people tell us that they felt comfortable talking about their own experiences with sexuality, or that they received information that they actually found useful and that they could pass on to their peers, partners or even their parents. 

At Balance, we have achieved sustainability of our work through sustained donations and grants that allows us to cover resources directly going towards the performances, such as transportation, paying actresses, condoms, lube, dental dams, and other sexual health goodies. Trough these grants, we are also able to employ 2 people as full time staff for our program. 

Nevertheless, expenses have increased due to the fact that we are actively seeking to go to marginalized communities, which implies that the distances are longer, and that we need more staff for our performances, as our audiences are bigger. This is why we are looking for more financing opportunities that can allow us to grow while maintaining the sustainability of our project.