Adolescents in El Salvador lack comprehensive reproductive and sexual health (RSH) education, a basic health right. The curriculum presently used in schools is limited and inexact, and only 5.5% of teachers have been trained in it. Comprehensive RSH education optimizes the health and development of young adults. In 2012, a progressive Salvadoran government acknowledged and prioritized national RSH education. The Ministry of Education developed an extensive RSH curriculum, but religious groups blocked it from being effectively disseminated. Moreover, no teachers have been trained to use it. There is an urgent need to create a cadre of teachers who can provide comprehensive RSH education.

Our interdisciplinary team of family planning professionals, implementation and monitoring experts from Project ECHOⓇ, and local community engagement organization Voices on the Border (Voices) have developed an RSH curriculum and training program in collaboration with Salvadoran rural communities to train teachers. Our FP experts have 20 years’ experience in delivering RSH education, program development, and clinical services, nationally and internationally. Voices has worked in El Salvador for 30 years, building capacity for communities to attain just and sustainable development. Since 2010, Project ECHOⓇ successfully operates as a ‘hub’ and ‘spoke’ model of bidirectional knowledge sharing and capacity building between experts (hub) and learners (spokes).

We are committed to building local knowledge and capacity and have adapted the Project ECHOⓇ model to deliver low-cost, replicable and sustainable RSH training for Salvadoran teachers in rural areas that can be scaled up throughout the country.