DKT International and The Pleasure Project Launch 12 Global Fellows to Advocate for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

WASHINGTON , September 17 /Businesswire/ - The Pleasure Project is pleased to announce the launch of the ‘Pleasure Fellow Scheme.’ Chosen from countries around the world, the 12 Pleasure Fellows will advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and provide expert and diverse outlooks on pleasure which account for different cultures, societies, and geographies. The Fellows hone their skills as pleasure advocates during a series of pleasure training seminars. Once completed, each Fellow receives funding sponsored by The Case for Her, Misscheifs and DKT International to carry out their pleasure-positive missions as newly mentored pleasure champions.

“Did your sex education mention the real reason people have sex? Did it get you ready for your sex/relationship life? The most common answer to these questions globally is no. For too long sex education has focused on all the terrible things that might happen to you after sex, like death, danger and disease. However, people are more likely to trust important sexual health information if we also acknowledge the truth: sex can feel good,” says Anne Philpott, founder and CEO of The Pleasure Project. “In 2004, I noticed a complete absence of pleasure in conversations around sexual and reproductive health, so out of frustration I started The Pleasure Project, advocating for a pleasure-positive approach. We’re confident our 12 Pleasure Fellows will make desire and wellbeing central to sex and sexual & reproductive health conversations by creatively spreading the message that pleasure is key throughout the ten countries they hail from – including Chile, the Philippines, and Kenya, to name a few. At the Pleasure Project, we are committed to putting the sexy back into safer sex.”

Given DKT International’s history with controversial, pleasure-positive mass media campaigns, like the 2013 DKT Pakistan Josh Condom advertisement, the global organization welcomed the opportunity to support the ‘Pleasure Fellow Program’ and hosted a session with the Fellows on how to overcome controversy. Both DKT and The Pleasure Project share the belief that pleasurable sex is a human right vs. fear and over-medicalization of sexual health and wellness. In addition, evidence proves that talking about pleasure also allows people to make safer choices in their sex lives and choose what to say yes or no to. In keeping with the World Association for Sexual Health’s recent 2021 declaration, sexual pleasure is a central part of the human experience and personal well-being and should exist free from discrimination, coercion, and violence.

“DKT is proud to partner with The Pleasure Project in this exciting and important work,” says Chris Purdy, CEO of DKT International. “To have effective conversations around contraception and safe sex, we must talk with consumers about why they have sex in the first place. No one ever called their partner on Sunday morning to ask about ‘how their reproductive health life was last night.’ The Pleasure Fellows will help remind the reproductive health community about this truth.”

Ultimately, the Pleasure Fellows will bring 12 new global voices and perspectives to a pleasure-positive approach, building upon the growing pleasure wave. For more information, watch the 12 Fellows in action on The Pleasure Project website here: https://thepleasureproject.org/pleasure-fellows/

About DKT International:

Since 1989, DKT International’s core mission has been to provide safe and affordable options for family planning and HIV prevention through social marketing in underserved countries throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

About The Pleasure Project:

The Pleasure Project is the leading global voice on pleasure based sexual health. Since 2004, The Pleasure Project ‘puts the sexy into safer sex, because sex education is rarely sexy and erotica rarely safe’, with the aim of getting sex educators comfortable talking about all aspects of sexual health and to embrace desire, joy, happiness, and pleasure when it comes to sex education.

The Pleasure Project has just been awarded the World Association for Sexual Health Award for Excellence and Innovation in Sexuality Education 2021.

Pleasure Based Sexual Health Definition

A pleasure-based approach is one that celebrates sex, sexuality and the joy and wellbeing that can be derived from these, and creates a vision of good sex built on sexual rights. It focuses on sensory, mental, physical and sensual pleasure to enable individuals to understand, consent to, and gain control over their own bodies and multi-faceted desires. Well-being, safety, pleasure, desire and joy are the objectives of a programme with a pleasure-based approach. This approach measures empowerment, agency, and self-efficacy by whether or not an individual has been enabled to know what they want, and can ask for it, and request this of others, in relation to their sexuality, desires and pleasure.

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