The Erasmus+ project: Sexuality education for adolescents and young adults with a refugee background

In 2015, the number of people in Europe having a refugee background increased significantly. At the same time, many European countries took in a large number of refugee minors, most of whom are now teenagers or young adults. The majority of those minors came to Europe without being accompanied by their families and therefore lack a main reference group, from which young people usually receive their information about sexuality and related topics.

Cultural and/or religious backgrounds can lead to sexual topics being concealed and tabooed or tainted with myths. A low-threshold access to evidence-based information is essential to promote health competences and to maintain sexual and reproductive health. Giving this information, empowers the target group to deal with their sexuality in a safe and responsible way. Youth work often lacks the awareness, concepts and/or materials tailored to the needs of young people with a refugee background – or too little (information) exchange occurs between the stakeholders.

To promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents and young adults, the BZgA, in cooperation with two partner organisations from Serbia and Turkey, submitted a so-called small-scale Erasmus+ project¹ funded by the EU with €60,000.

The project focusses on strengthening the health skills and competences of adolescents and young adults with a refugee background throughout sexuality education. In detail, this objective shall be achieved using the following approaches:

The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of this topic in youth work and state institutions, which consequently should be an impetus to take action in their own country.

In most of the cases, there are isolated initiatives, websites and related channels, which are all not well known at a national or international level. Putting emphasis on transnational knowledge transfer and networking serves to facilitate the access to the sources of information, initiatives, materials, etc. Indeed, other organisations can also take use of this access and consequently the target group can profit. 

Recording, collecting and making accessible methods and offers in the area of sexuality education for adolescents and young adults with a refugee background provides opportunities for action at national and transnational level. At the same time, the extent of knowledge available to multipliers is increased. Throughout this process, the goal is to promote the development and dissemination of methods that can be used to reach the target groups.

The Erasmus+ project aims to motivate European countries to ensure the promotion of sexuality education for young people with a refugee background and to create appropriate programmes.

The Erasmus+ project starts in the autumn of 2023, runs for 2 years and is coordinated by the BZgA (German Federal Centre for Health Education). Besides Germany, the partner countries Serbia and Turkey represented by NGOs, are part of the project with the support of the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) country offices.

Following a transnational exchange, a national meeting will take place in each project country with all relevant stakeholders, including youth, health, education, integration work, and community members. These meetings should provide insights into the current national situations and provide as well a platform for exchanging best practises and lessons learned. Based on the findings from the national meetings, an international exchange of expertise on sexuality education for adolescents and young adults with a refugee background will be organised, targeting professionals from all over Europe.

The plan is to use the collection of best practises, lessons learned and the results of the expert exchange to create a publication for multipliers and a roadmap with counselling options for the target group.

The aim is to provide appropriate methods and materials for sexuality education for adolescents and young adults with a refugee background in all partner countries and throughout Europe to support organisations, institutions and multipliers in their work in the field of sexual health and empowerment of the target group.

¹Small scale refers to the scope of the project.