From trains to TV: Kim Windvogel’s inclusive sex education journey

I am greeted by a friendly voice when our interview finally begins. Kim Windvogel laughs at our tribulations: poor phone signal, a Google Meet that won’t initiate and then, loadshedding. When we do finally get going, their camera shows an empty black space. I quickly Google to find out if Mercury is retrograde. It’s not.

Windvogel is a dynamic young non-binary person who focuses a great deal on sex education for girls and women. They even co-hosted Showmax’s Sex and Pleasure, discussing sexuality and sexual wellness. Although they say they are an introvert, they play against the stereotype. They are most definitely not shy.

While working at Transnet, they and several others were tasked with creating education programmes for girls and young women, centred around menstrual health.

Windvogel and her fellow co-ordinators would travel South Africa on Transnet’s Pelophepa train to share and spread their curriculum. The train is custom built and designed to bring healthcare to those in remote areas who would otherwise have little to no access to it.

The project inspired Windvogel, and now they run FEMMEPROJECTS, in partnership with Transnet until 2017, which takes on sex education with a feminist slant. The talks and workshops given to young women in schools is an interactive experience.

“When I started the programmes I was around twenty-three,” says Windvogel, “So, I was young enough to relate to the kids and old enough to give them that peer understanding. The older kids, especially the 17 and 18-year-olds, saw me as an older sibling. They felt they could talk to me about anything.”

Their passion for their work is audible in their voice as they relate distributing moon cups, getting communities involved, educating learners and even their parents.

Kim Windvogel’s energy is infectious

The conversation turns to the Showmax series Sex and Pleasure. “Sex and Pleasure is almost like my love letter to spending ten years working in the sex and reproductive health space,” Windvogel tells me. The show features discussions with everyday South Africans, and various experts, about sex and, well, pleasure.

“There is not enough information about sex and pleasure out there,” Windvogel says, “Especially some of the complexities of sex and pleasure and the layers of it.”

Windvogel has also compiled two books with a focus on queer experience: They Called Me Queer, a collection of stories by LGBTQIA+ Africans, and Touch: Sex, Sexuality and Sensuality, which draws on the experiences of sex from people across genders, sexualities and borders.

There is no doubt that they are leading an incredibly busy life dedicated to education, support and advocacy.

“With the different lives I lead, there is always some connection,” says Windvogel, “My projects feed into the life I lead with my friends, my family, my chosen family, and the people I choose to surround myself with. And my family life infiltrates the kind of work that I do. This also infiltrates the kind of life I want to live and the kind of work I want to do.”

We laugh throughout our chat. She puts me at such ease I tell her about someone I met, who I find interesting. We bond like two teenagers discussing their latest crush.

As our discussion comes to a close, I am a little loathe to say goodbye. Kim Windvogel’s energy is infectious, sparking my own desire to put more work into my own activism and advocacy.

The screen goes dark as we end the Google meeting. The lights come back on. I feel as though I have spent time with a rare and extraordinary human being.