“Without Taboo” is an educational and interactive game developed by UNFPA Moldova for adolescents and young people older than 15. It includes sets of questions in the form of quizzes about violence, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and healthy eating, encouraging the young people to take responsible and informed decisions. The game helps the young people to improve their analytical, communication and teamwork skills, IPN reports, quoting a press release of UNFPA Moldova.
The game was issued in 275 copies in Romanian and Russian and is to be distributed through the Youth Centers Network, Youth-Friendly Health Centers (Youth Klinic), Y-PEER Moldova Network. It is also available online – http://faratabu.joc.md/ – for the adolescents and young people to be able to access it whenever they want.
Ludmila Sîrbu, UNFPA Moldova Program Analyst on Youth, said the game “Without Taboo” comes to fill the informational gap in the field of sexual and reproductive health of adolescents, being based on reliable sources of information given that formal education on the issue is yet sporadic.
Currently, the adolescents and young people at school study only elements of the building of safe friendly and love relations, mental health, prevention of harassment and sexual violence, prevention of pregnancy in adolescence and other issues within mandatory disciplines. Only 10% of the students annually study detailed information at the optional course “Education for Health”.
“Without access to systemic, complex and long-lasting education in schools and families, the adolescents and young people face problems related to the psycho-emotional health, bullying and violence, high rate of infection with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, pregnancies at an early age. That’s why we need to continuously diversify reliable sources of information and education that would complement schools and family education and would offer an alternative to the Internet, where the young people access information that they cannot classify as correct or incorrect,” stated Ludmila Sîrbu.
The game “Without Taboo” was devised with the assistance of UNFPA. The format and design were planned by Erudit Studio SRL. The content was developed by adolescents and young people and was validated by national and international experts in health and education.
According to official data, the young people aged between 15 and 24 in Moldova represent about 10% of the country’s population.
