Hei,

Thank you for showing up for us by taking the time to read these words. 

I bet you agree: 

- YES, it is preposterous that in Romania, we regularly have the highest incidence in the EU for the following health indicators: abortions, unintended pregnancies, syphilis, and HIV/AIDS; 

- YES, it is an economic disaster that we spend 33 Million Euro/year in Romania for direct medical costs related to the same indicators: incidences of abortions, unintended pregnancies, syphilis, and HIV/AIDS; 

- YES, it is horrible that young people - from villages and cities like - don't receive enough education on reproductive health, as health education is only taught to 5% of Romanian pupils (decrees from 7-8% 5 years ago);

- YES, it is amazing that in this bleak reality, SEX vs THE STORK is a unique proven lifeline, with 40 million views for 200 educational videos, followed by 300 000 followers on Youtube and Tiktok; 1800 counseling clients/year; unique advocacy efforts for universal access to reproductive health education and services. 

- YES, our systemic work is something you want to support long-term: we're talking about a radio show on Radio România Cultural, mature advocacy efforts, free educational packages for schools, parents' conferences. 

- YES, you want to support us because it would give you a lot of satisfaction to know that you are improving young lives in their essential and most vulnerable aspects - their health, their love, their future families.  And if you get to the end of this message, you will read some heart-warming messages from our followers.

So again, thank you for being here. Nothing good can be done singlehandedly. Especially today.

This summer, education for reproductive and sexual health, as well as gender equality education, have been attacked in the legislative in Romania, while time kept expanding to widen the distance between young people and the last moment they set foot in a school to receive a formal education. On the 15th of September, school started, precariously and with CoViD-19 deficiencies. Even before the pandemic, 17 of 100 children in Romania stopped going to school after 8th grade. There are over 300 000 children in Romania who don't go to school. It is really easy for them to become underage mothers and dysfunctional fathers, and workers exposed to exploitation because they can't defend their rights.

In this setting, SEX vs THE STORK is trying to consolidate a form of education what we consider elementary, and NOT an extra perk: education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, that in Romania only 5% of pupils receive.

You have been doing this for 7 years. Next to our Youtube channel (115 000 subscribers and 13,5 million views), this summer we started a TikTok channel that went to 190 000 subscribers and 25 million views in 3 months. Yes, that is HUGE. We are helping a lot of people, and they are very grateful for it. 

With the added followers, our counseling service, offered in partnership with Save the Children Romania, is starting to change. We say we counsel 1800 people/year, so an average of 35 people/week. But this week 35 people wrote to us in just 2 days.

These are not just teens. Young adults need these conversations too. We - and my colleagues and I include ourselves - need these conversations.

Take a look at our stats on different platforms:

YouTube: 115 000 followers, 45% women, 55% bărbați - 60% of the audience is between 18 and 34 years old.

Facebook: 19 000 followers, 68% women 32% men - 75%  of the audience is 18 and 34 years old.

TikTok: 190 000 followers, 65% women, 35% men, no age stats. 

If reading this turned a bit introspective for you, it is because intimacy is complex. But it can be supported with education. That is why it is good to receive the correct and age-appropriate information as children and teens. And continue learning as adults. We pride ourselves on working according to the WHO Europe Standards for comprehensive sexuality education.

THE FUTURE

SEX vs THE STORK has big plans:

• we want to keep producing videos and keep offering counselling (so a double approach to educate + offer health services)
• we want to finance a small radio show, to which Radio România Cultural has already said yes, and that would hugely expand our audience;
• we want to get involved in a mature advocacy process, so that an universal access to sexual and reproductive health and health education can be achieved; for this we need legal counselling and a lot of time invested in high-level talks to represent the needs of our beneficiaries; we are already doing advocacy - but it is time consuming and we need a lot more ressources;
• we want to create 5 free digital packages for schools (with lesson plans, videos, quizzes and teachers’ training). Every school in Romania who will engage in a partnership with us will receive these digital packages for free, to work in the classroom on the following topics: the biology of reproduction, sexually transmitted infections, birth control, equality between girls and boys, forms of violence in young couples. Our purpose here is to get our educational products - tested by million users online - into schools , in a sustainable way. Longterm this will also help us find allies in teachers and principals, who will support of advocacy efforts;
• we want to organise parents’ conferences. Our purpose here is to support parents in educating their children on their reproductive and emotional health. Longterm this would mean capacitating parents as agents of change to ask for the education and health services their children need.

YOU

We have the faith - that comes from our 7 years of experience so far -  that if you continue our highly popular online work, improve our high-level advocacy efforts and add working bottom-up with parents and teachers, the longterm change for proper reproductive health services and universal health education will be attained.

It takes a village, please be a part of ours. 

Mulțumesc că ai citit toate astea. 

Cu sinceritate/Truthfully, 

Adriana Radu

SEX vs THE STORK has garnered international recognition. Founder Adriana Radu was invited as a speaker in numerous conferences on sexual and reproductive health and rights: WHO/Bundeszentrale für Gesundheitliche Aufklärung 2017 Berlin, International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network 2019 Tallinn, Women Deliver 2019 Vancouver, UNESCO 2020 Istanbul.

SEX vs THE STORK members:

Founder and President Adriana Radu, Master of Public Health Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 2020 Forbes 30 under 30; Adriana was 24 when the SEX vs THE STORK was launched.

Vice President Daniela Drăghici, advocacy specialist with 20 years of experience, ASTRA Network Advisory Board member and Regional Executive Committee member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation - European Network;

Secretary: Ioana Nanu P.h.D, Romanian language teacher currently with the American School
of Bucharest.

Those heartwarming messages :)

Bună Sexul vs Barza! Vreau să încep acest mesaj prin a vă mulțumi că existat! Sunteți niște oameni foarte fani și dragi mie. Canalul vostru de Youtube m-a ajutat extrem de mult pe parcursul anilor. Datorită vouă sunt confortabilă cu corpul și sexualitatea mea, am trecut peste multe nesiguranțe, am primit răspunsuri la întrebări care nimeni nu voia să răspundă ,etc.
Vreau să vă ajut cumva. Vreau ca mai mulți adolescenți ,tinerii adulți și oameni maturi să afle de voi și să își înțeleagă corpurile mai bine.
Din păcate nu va pot ajuta financiar încă,dar daca as putea, as face-o.
Cuvintele nu pot exprima cât de mult vă apreciez și iubesc.

Poti să faci un video cum sa ii spun mamei ca mi a venit ciclul?