‘It’s always fear-based’: why sexual health projects should switch the focus to pleasure

Part of the Treasure Your Pleasure campaign by the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Photograph: Courtesy of IPPF

In the village in Kenya where Swiry Nyar Kano (not her real name) grew up, sex and diversity weren’t talked about much.

The topics didn’t come up in conversation with her parents, and at school she was taught about human anatomy and “sexual immorality”, and told that homosexuality was a sin.