Ponton Group of Sex Educators

Ponton Group of Sex Educators was founded by a group of young activists in Poland in 2001 to help empower young people to embrace adolescence and adulthood with confidence by improving their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights through education and advocacy. Ponton, which means life raft in Polish, works with youth aged 13-19, with a particular focus on adolescent girls. The organisation, affiliated with the Federation for Women and Family Planning, provides comprehensive sexuality education for teens as well as online and phone counselling services. It also organises awareness and advocacy campaigns on sexuality education, sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted and teen pregnancies. Ponton advocates on a national and regional level in order to include comprehensive sexuality and relationship education into the mandatory school curriculum. Ponton runs extensive research projects on the state of sexual education in the country. These studies help reinforce and deliver advocacy messages and educate the community on good standards of gynaecological care, especially for young women, LGBTQ women and women with disabilities. Ponton is a girl-centred organisation that works on highly controversial topics in Poland. Its programmes are relevant to the context in which it operates, and to date, it has impacted over 5,000 people.