The mission of Comunicação em Sexualidade (ECOS) is to contribute to the promotion and transformation of values and behaviors related to the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young people, always from a standpoint of eradicating discrimination based on social class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, or stemming from any physical or mental handicap.

Projects

Projects are carried out through studies and diagnostic assessments, human resources development, advising to groups and institutions, and systematization and production of educational materials.

• Information & Publications: Throughout its existence, ECOS has incorporated new issues to address growing social demands, including youth participation, sexual diversity, and gender violence, while never neglecting its main vocation, namely to promote sexual education and the sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents and young people. The hallmark of its work is its ongoing, persistent intervention that extends beyond the realm of NGOs, acting in different social spheres, in public, private and government institutions. Our materials are known and used throughout Brazil, and abroad, in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. This body of work has contributed to the national public debate, by building knowledge through its products (videos, manuals, newsletters, books, seminars, consulting services, participation on governmental commissions), and through contributions to scientific journals, publications of organized groups, or in the media itself.
• Teen-friendly Health Services: Includes a set of actions to promote comprehensive health, as well as guarantee and respect the sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents and young people, meeting their needs, with a view to contributing to sexual and reproductive planning and reducing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS.
  
• More Women: A project which seeks to help empower HIV-positive women in the face of the vulnerabilities to which they are exposed, particularly those stemming from the lack of work opportunities and low/scarce income. The project emphasizes the creation and marketing of a social entrepreneurship experience.
  

"I did not have opportunity to talk about what I felt, I did not have a space to be heard. And through my participation to ECOS'programs I started feeling that there was a space for me to talk and to learn." -Gisele, ECOS

Impact

In 2007 the Teen-friendly Health Services project reached more than 5,000 adolescents and young women through their youth group formation, lectures in schools, theater presentations, etc.

To learn more about ECOS, visit their Portuguese-language website.

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