On the 23rd and 24th of May 2024, the USAID Breaking Barrier Activity had a trip to the Liquica Municipality, specifically the administrative post of Leorema and Bazartete, to conduct our School Intervention activity, focusing on reproductive health and early teenage pregnancy. The team reached 3 schools in the area and delivered essential activities aiming to raise awareness on the program’s topics. The 3 schools visited were Escola Tecnico Vocasional Leorema, EBC Leorema, and Escola Secundaria Bazartete. 
Our activity sessions a 3-hour interactive session on the idea of gender and sex roles integration in everyday lives, to reproductive health, showing of a short movie focusing on teenage pregnancy, case study presentation by the students and finally and open discussions in which the participants were given the chance to engage in a healthy conversation on their perspectives regarding the topics.
In total, 150 students from 12 to 19 years old participated in the sessions (50 from each target school), and a representative of the ministry of health Timor-Leste helped us emphasize more on the ministry’s role. The students were highly interactive with the team, especially in the discussion sessions, by raising their curiosities and challenging each other’s perspectives on both topics, such as “why can’t women be the head of the family?”, “what are the advantages for couples to practice gender equality?”, “why do girls get their period at age 10?”, “how often do boys have wet dreams?”, as well as many other comments which triggered active discussions among the students.
Our team and the participants were happy and grateful for the successful conclusion of the activity and hope to see more of what’s to come. Get in touch with us for more information on our programs via techhamnasa@outlook.com