Salt and Light Newsletter

Young people want to talk about relationships and sex - but what do they specifically want to talk about? 

To help youth practitioners kick-start these conversations, with your support, we were pleased to launch a new RSE resource at the National Youth Ministry Weekend in November. Let’s Talk About… is a deck of cards with 4 games that grow young people's confidence in discussing key relationships and sex topics in a fun, low-pressure, and youth-led way, covering anatomy, relationships, emotions, sex, technology, and more. Read more.

You helped our accredited training continue strongly in 2023 with 7 courses training 94 new educators. With 24 hours of teaching time, the course includes an option to gain a level 4 accreditation in ‘Teaching Relationships and Sex Education.’

One of the amazing things about delivering most of these courses online means it is accessible to anyone no matter where they are geographically – as long as they can cope with any time difference that creates! 10 of the 94 trainees were not UK-based and now 9% of our Esteem network is based in another country, with members as far afield as Brazil, Japan, South Africa, and Malaysia. Read more.

It is estimated that there are 22 million child brides in Nigeria. That’s more than double the population of London! 43% of Nigerian girls are married before they turn 18 and, in one northern state, it is much higher - 89% are married before they even turn 15. 

Child marriage is driven by cultural norms, such as marrying daughters off at an early age to ensure they are virgins to retain family honour, and gender inequality - the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys. Girls are far from being equal partners within these marriages; they are forced to drop out of school; and often get pregnant when they are still children themselves. Read more.

It might seem strange that ACET Nigeria’s club leaders also help the children with school work but consider this: UNICEF reports that 1 in every 5 of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.

Even though primary education is officially free (and compulsory!) in Nigeria, 39% of 6-11 year-olds do NOT regularly attend school. 70 percent of 10-year-olds in Nigeria cannot read well, which fuels further school dropout.

Gender inequality and the issue with child marriages mean that girls are affected the most: more than half of Nigerian girls are not in school. Read more.

It’s now over 2 years since the start of the war in Ukraine. We are so humbled by the resilience of our ACET Ukraine colleagues whose determination to continue serving young people is incredibly inspiring. Thank you so much for your support which enables and encourages them in these difficult circumstances

347 of ACET Ukraine’s faithful volunteers have been able to continue their mission to deliver high-quality relationships and sexual health education and other important life skills education to young people in schools, youth clubs and churches across 14 regions. Read more.

In Zimbabwe, women are marginalized and disadvantaged because of their gender, especially if they are living with HIV and in poverty. Social-economic injustice has forced many into sex work, because it seems to be their only way of survival. 

Each year, your support enables the Shining Star project to recruit a new group of these ladies and train them as sexual health peer educators, so they can empower their peers with knowledge that will help protect them from HIV, STIs and gender-based violence. Read more.

Thanks to your support, Paul was recently able to provide a secondary school in Oxford with a bespoke workshop for 11 of their teachers. They looked at key aspects of the current government statutory guidance for RSE and Paul guided them through some activity ideas of how they could facilitate great lessons around topics such as healthy relationships, STIs, and online naked picture sharing. Read more.

Thanks to your generous donations, Rachel has been busy with the continued development of the primary school part of our new racial identity programme. She’s been delivering a series of sessions and refining the materials and content in response to feedback from children and teachers.

The children show great maturity when reasoning  in these sessions. They discuss the need for having lessons like these that celebrate racial identity    and challenge racism as they recognise that racism is a behaviour that is learned. These lessons celebrate diversity and foster alternative, inclusive behaviours. Read more.

Thanks to your support, ACET Russia’s compassionate facilitators have worked in over 10 cities and towns in the last year delivering education to prevent HIV, STIs, unhealthy relationships and destructive behaviour such as smoking, drug-taking, and alcohol abuse.  

Their informative lectures and seminars are delivered in various settings including schools, colleges, employment centres, orphanages, churches, and pre-trial detention centres.  Read more.

We’ve partnered with expert will writers, Octopus Legacy to provide you with a quick and easy will writing service. And what’s more - in 2024, you can get it for FREE by using the code ACETUKFREE. Read more.