Advancing comprehensive sexuality education in the Global South with AMAZE and Fòs Feminista

In July, Fòs Feminista, in collaboration with the Center for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and Youth-Friendly Services, the WestWind Foundation, and AMAZE International, launched the first-ever global edition of the WestWind Awards. This initiative provides support to innovative CSE initiatives in the Global South that include the promotion, use, creation and/or adaptation of AMAZE videos.

The application period closed with 20 proposals from 15 different countries, showcasing a variety of strategies and approaches to promote CSE with the support of AMAZE videos.

A selection committee comprising representatives from Fòs Feminista, the Center for CSE and Youth-Friendly Services, the WestWind Foundation, and AMAZE International conducted the final stage of the selection process, resulting in the selection of four initiatives to receive funding.

The winners for the WestWind Awards 2025-2026 prioritize reaching marginalized young people, show a clear strategy for meaningful youth engagement, and use AMAZE videos as part of their interventions.​

And the winners are…

• In Chile, MILES will facilitate a digital lab with young people and adolescents to build content to promote CSE and AMAZE videos. This project is part of their CSE initiative “Que sea consentido” (“It must be consensual”), created to advance CSE information for young people centering consent as a relevant starting point.
• In Guyana, Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) will use AMAZE videos and radio adaptations in Guyanese creole to reach Indigenous and rural young people with information about CSE and to promote access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.
• In Nigeria, Education as a Vaccine (EVA), will work with secondary schools to launch boys’ and girls’ clubs where they will use AMAZE videos as part of the training for facilitators and also as tools to start conversations among participants.
• In Poland, the Foundation for Women and Family Planning – FEDERA will collaborate with allied organizations to facilitate a series of interactive workshops and the adaptation of AMAZE videos to the Polish context. They will also gather additional digital resources to promote in digital and physical settings.

These four organizations and their initiatives exemplify the diversity of strategies and approaches used by Fòs Feminista partners worldwide to provide young people and adolescents with access to friendly, evidence-based, and accurate information about sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, well-being, and other relevant topics covered in comprehensive sexuality education. This is especially important at a time when CSE is under attack by anti-rights groups that promote misinformation and persecute those who provide CSE.

Fòs Feminista is proud to celebrate the selection of these partners for the WestWind Awards and will provide them with support during the implementation of their projects, and create space for them to share their experiences and learnings through a global Community of Learning led by the Center for CSE and Youth Friendly Services, co-hosted by Fòs Feminista, CIES (Bolivia), Aahung (Pakistan) and Women for a Change (Cameroon).

We will continue looking for new opportunities to advance CSE for young people and adolescents, especially those who are most marginalized.

Congratulations to the winners for this edition of the WestWind Awards!