During the first three months of the year, Bus4Life visited schools in 13 different towns with Hungarian prolife organisation, Shout for Life. Both primary schools (from 7th grade and up) and high schools were visited.
At one of the high schools, a young student started making loud comments about one of the films shown on the bus. The film tells the story of a pregnant teenage girl. The young man suggested that the girl “needs to have an abortion”. His attitude, however, changed considerably after the group had been shown a short video about what happens during an abortion. After seeing the film, the same young man wrote in Bus4Life’s guest book: “I will not force my girlfriend to have an abortion.”
Sharing information and speaking openly about difficult topics is what schools appreciate most about Bus4Life’s visits. Many schools make requests to have OM and Shout for Life return again in a year or two so that the next group of teenagers can get the same information. At one school, a biology teacher applauded the visit, saying the material is “very good”. “Please come back in a few years,” he said, “we want all students to see this.”
Some teachers want to visit the exhibition by themselves before bringing students in. Once they have seen what it is about, they feel confident about participating with the students. In Hungary, most education about sex and sexuality is limited to ‘safe sex’ and giving out condoms – emotional aspects of sexuality are often absent altogether. Bus4Life’s visit offers much needed change to this. Most teachers have a very positive reaction to the visit, and many continue the discussion with their students afterwards.
“The hardest part of the ministry, for me, is learning what the sexual lives of young teenagers look like,” OM’s István Horváth admits. “One group told us that only about 10 percent in their class had not had sex. Everyone else is having sex. It was hard to hear, but it is the real picture.” Teachers estimate that between one and three babies are born to students every year in each of the high schools. Of course, the teachers cannot guess how many students have abortions each year.