Patricia Palacios de Nava

Patricia Nava Rodríguez is pioneering the creation of a national sex education initiative in Mexico, the first to bring together the citizen and government sectors to share information and educate Mexicans about sex and sexuality.

Because sex and its repercussions affect everyone, regardless of class, politics or race, Patricia Nava is working to mobilize Mexican citizen activists, political leaders, and community members for the first time in the common fight against sexual ignorance, abuse, and disease. Patricia has launched a national, inter-institutional initiative to promote and coordinate sex education programs. Through the facilitation of national dialogues, trainings, conferences, and other forums for idea exchange, Patricia has created an umbrella under which diverse institutions can improve their programs and share information across sectors and geographic and political boundaries. Her goal is to provide equal access for all Mexicans to sex education, counseling, and services through a national commitment to this collaboration.

In Mexico and around the world, many of society's most overwhelming issues, including rape, abuse, exploitation, disease, and unplanned pregnancy, can be attributed to widespread ignorance about sex. Frank and informed discussions about sex and reproductive health are rare in Mexico regardless of the setting, whether it be the classroom, home, or media. Sex education in schools is limited and even more restricted in forums controlled by the Catholic Church. Only recently did the Mexican Secretary of Education approve the inclusion of some sex-related topics in fifth and sixth grade Natural Sciences and Human Development texts and 11th grade Civic and Ethical Education curricula. The result of this is that many Mexicans, especially teenagers, the most vulnerable group, understand very little of the biological, social, emotional, and health factors associated with sex.

The consequences of this lack of education are blatant and hard to ignore. According to the National AIDS Commission, Mexico City youth become sexually active on average at the age of 16 1/2, while the average age in poor states like Morelos or Chiapas is as low as 13. An estimated 25 percent of all registered pregnancies are adolescents, and at least half of these pregnancies are accidental and unwanted. Yet, contraceptive use among Mexican teens remains low.

Adolescents are not the only group suffering the repercussions of inadequate sexual education. AIDS is afflicting both young and old throughout Mexico in record numbers–yet another indication of the paucity of effective education and prevention initiatives. Similarly, the silence surrounding sex and reproductive health has served to engrain gender inequalities, foment violence against women, and exacerbate homophobia.

In the absence of leadership on the part of a government that is still strongly influenced by the church, the independent citizen sector has begun to tackle the problem. While organizations like MEXFAM and the Mexican Institute of Sexuality have made important advances in the development of sex education programs and materials, efforts have been sporadic and poorly tuned to the particularities of local communities and cultures, with little, if any, coordination among different groups. Sexuality is an issue that cuts across all divisions of society, yet few teachers, community leaders, or parents have the information they need to educate themselves and future generations about reproductive health, sex, and the responsibility it requires.

To provide Mexicans throughout the country with better and more accessible sex education services, Patricia brings existing citizen organizations together under the National System of Promotion and Sexual Health (SISEX), an umbrella association offering education and training, communications support, and institutional development counsel to its members. The SISEX network encompasses over 25 organizations–large and small, local and regional, in 16 states–that are united in their commitment to providing sex education and reproductive health information to a diverse range of populations.

To facilitate this spread of information SISEX has an assembly comprising 75 representatives from its members around the country. Additionally, SISEX is divided into four regional groups, each with its own coordinators and smaller thematic groups. A comprehensive Web page and Intranet site ensure that members have quick and easy access to the latest information and materials on sexuality and sex education. The members of SISEX map out the existing services available from governmental and nongovernmental organizations in the different Mexican states. They have created local resource guides that facilitate access to information by a greater portion of the population than ever before. The distribution network Patricia developed allows information to be spread widely throughout the Mexican Republic; it is partially based on grassroots marketing models successfully employed by multinational companies.

With the network in place and growing, Patricia and her colleagues are working to create a national community education program about reproductive health and rights. She is leading the campaign to certify sex educators with the appropriate government authorities, a process guaranteeing that endorsed sex educators have achieved a requisite level of knowledge about sexuality and its impact in society. A fully qualified and regulated core of educators ensures that the most useful and accurate information is taught to school students, at-risk youth, and parents.

Patricia expects that SISEX will eventually have operations in all Mexican states. Having already trained youth leaders and community promoters in the Dominican Republic for an organization called Profamilia, she plans to continue working at the international level to spread the SISEX model through outlets like the Latin American Conference on Sexuality and HIV and AIDS Prevention.

Growing up on the border between a poor and a middle-class neighborhood in Mexico where many of her playmates were from impoverished households, Patricia developed a strong social awareness early on. In addition to being dismayed by the poverty she saw during her youth, Patricia was also frustrated by the gender discrimination that she suffered in her own home, where she and her sister were expected to serve their four brothers. In her years as a Girl Scout, she was particularly fond of participating in community-service activities. She remembers being impressed by a young girl at an orphanage who, despite having no arms, was a respected leader among her orphan peers.

Eager to help remedy economic and gender inequalities, Patricia studied social work at the Autonomous University of Mexico. Following her studies, she moved to the impoverished state of Guerrero, where she helped to create a union of local farm workers. Her frustration with gender inequality resurfaced in Guerrero as she observed that only men could participate in the union movement. As a result, Patricia became involved in the feminist movement and led the creation of the first union of female garment workers.

In 1992 one of Patricia's brothers died of AIDS. Deeply affected by this personal tragedy and eager to learn more about AIDS and sexual education initiatives, Patricia began working with a Mexico City nongovernmental organization called the Sun Collective that was dedicated to providing community groups with information about sex. It was through her work as coordinator of the collective's training division that Patricia saw the huge gaps in sexual education in Mexico, spurring her in 1994 to develop and implement what is now the National System of Promotion and Sexual Health (SISEX).