THE PROJECT

In the context of the demographic developments in Europe and in the midst of a rising awareness about one’s own body and fertility, there is a perceived need of more specific information about fertility and its management. Couples could benefit from new perspectives concerning their fertile years and from a more comprehensive approach in the decision process of family planning.

The Fertility Management Program focuses on the development of a training course on couple relationships and the corresponding gender issues pertaining to both males and females, sexuality, fertility awareness, family planning and perspectives on life as a couple. Courses will enable adult educators to educate specific target groups that face multiple barriers to their empowerment such as migrants, males that are not motivated to participate in the decision-making process concerning fertility and populations living in rural areas. Further expected outputs are a workbook for adult educators and specific material for the target groups.

The first steps have been undertaken by the partner organizations to develop courses on fertility management as there is no adequate program existing in Europe at the moment. The proposed project intends to bring those efforts together taking into account the experiences of all participating organizations on the basis of the curriculum of a fertility management program that has been developed by the German Malteser Arbeitsgruppe NFP for the work with couples from different target groups. This program includes the education of adult educators who inform, counsel and accompany women and couples during their fertile years.

During the course, alternative learning methods related to everyday life will be offered, stimulating and providing entertainment including role-play, “learning by doing” and microteaching. The participants will be encouraged to act on their own initiative (self-learning) and the focus will be on the enhancement of personal contacts between learners. The participants will be looking for the general meaning of fertility management and will discuss questions about values (incl. culture related ones), norms and perspectives. According to "soft pedagogy" the participants will not only be listening and talking, but also get the opportunity of “seeing, feeling and understanding”. The use of audio-visual aids and Internet technology on how to manage meetings and teams, set targets, stimulate communication, prepare and make decisions and build up motivation will be introduced and trained.

The direct target groups are practitioners (EU and Croatia) in the field of adult education who work in the educational, social and/or public health sector (e.g. adult educators working in family centers, health centers and community education centers, family consultants, midwives and district nurses, teachers, pastoral workers on marriage preparation and NFP-teachers. They may be working as employees or independently for public institutions or NGO’s.

Although all females and males in their reproductive years are indirectly addressed by the program the main focus lies on males, migrants and populations from rural areas. It is well known that these groups are difficult to address due to reasons such as lack of communication skills, cultural diversity, role-definition and inadequate access to information. This is one of the reasons why new information technologies are part of the program and cultural and gender related pedagogical efforts will be taken into account to help both males and females in a couple relationship.