Today, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, at exactly 12 o’clock, an online platform https://pazisex.net/ for young people officially started to work, in order to raise awareness and inform young people about sexual and reproductive health. Through the story of puberty, falling in love, growing up and first sex, this platform covers all the issues that are rarely or reluctantly talked about, and are present in every segment of young people’s lives.

The https://pazisex.net/ platform is not only a place of education but also an online space where young people are free to discuss and ask questions that interest them about sexual and reproductive health and growing up. Through this platform, we also contribute to the de-tabulation of topics that young people want to discuss and need to be educated and informed in order to practice healthier lifestyles and be less exposed to dangerous and illegal social phenomena such as peer and gender-based violence, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse and others. forms of violence that often occur in adolescence.

We ask you to publish information about this important online platform for young people through your media, especially online portals and social networks.

The platform https://pazisex.net/ was developed in cooperation with experts as part of the regional program Young Men Initiative (YMI), which has been actively dealing with issues of gender equality, healthy lifestyles and prevention of all types of violence and extremism for over 15 years in the Western Balkans. YMI implements CARE International in the Balkans with partner NGOs across the region. For more information please contact:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ševko Bajić, Communications Coordinator, Mob: +38761190569, email: sbajic@care.ba

• Serbia: Sara Dereta, project manager, Mob: +381691031048, email: sdereta@care.rs

• Kosovo and Albania: Ema Rraci, Project Coordinator, Mob: +383 49 588 815, email: ema.rraci@care.org

Projects under the Young Men Initiative program are currently supported by: the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) for the project: Future for Youth: Young people as leaders in life skills education in the Balkans; Swiss Development Agency for the project: Youth Initiative (YMI): Promoting healthier lifestyles and reducing interpersonal violence among young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina by challenging gender stereotypes; Phase III and Oak Foundation Project: Youth as Future Leaders for Life Skills Promotion (YMI III).