PROGRAMS
About the Heart Program
Discovering Needs, Explaining Consequences, Building Character
H.E.A.R.T. is an acronym for the fruits of the successful exercise of one’s sexuality:
• Happiness • Empowerment • Accountability • Respect • True love
Vision
To raise strong characters to live an intelligent sexuality
Mission
To help form teenagers that are capable of cultivating true love, the basis of fulfilment as persons in any circumstance
The Protect Your Heart Program is based on the Protege tu Corazón (PTC), which is a globally recognized educational program designed to foster character development, emotional intelligence, and responsible sexuality. It was founded in Colombia in the early 1990s by Maria Luisa Estrada and Juan Francisco Vélez, who saw a need for a more holistic approach to sex education. At the time, traditional programs focused primarily on biology, neglecting the emotional and personal aspects of sexual health.
In today’s world—where a hypersexualized culture and rising mental health challenges among young people are major concerns—the need for a value-based, human-centered, and comprehensive educational program has become even more urgent. Protege tu Corazón (PTC) has expanded to over 160 cities across 19 countries, successfully adapting to diverse cultural and socio-economic contexts.
Despite differences in geography or local culture, contemporary adolescents and young adults around the world face similar challenges, navigating a social climate where access to vast amounts of information is growing exponentially. This global shift underscores the need for a program that equips young people with the emotional skills, self-awareness, and values to navigate the complexities of modern life.
Who is it for?
The program is directed at adolescents, parents and educators.
Parents are the first and most important educators of their children and this includes the area of their sexuality. Unfortunately, it has been shown time and again that parents often have little communication with their children with regards to subjects related to sexuality.
Since the initiation of PTC in 1993, it became clear that it was crucial to involve parents with the important issues of sexuality that PTC was exploring with their children, and this gave rise to the parent workshops which complement the adolescent sessions.
Through them, parents are informed of the adolescent world, something that can sometimes be very foreign to them, allowing them to comprehend better the needs of their adolescent children. They receive pedagogical tools to prepare themselves for the formation of their children’s character, learning to open a channel of dialogue, to connect better and consequently, to influence their children with practical sense and with optimism about what young people are truly capable of.
Customised for Singapore
In Singapore, the program is adapted as Protect Your Heart, specifically tailored to address the unique challenges faced by local youth while still focusing on the universal struggles that young people everywhere face today. By customizing PTC to the local context, Protect Your Heart brings the proven, holistic approach of PTC to Singapore, helping its young people make informed, healthy decisions about relationships, sexuality, and personal well-being.
Programs
Adolescent Modules
These workshops address issues in age-appropriate sequence, content and language for the youth, with workshops beginning in the late primary years and continuing to the end of the secondary school years.
Profile Type: Preteens 9-11 years
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Who Am I
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Keys to manage my emotions
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Adolescence – Challenges and Risks
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Internet, a world of images
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The best like is yourself
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Having friends, being a good friend
Profile Type: Teens 12-15 years
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Understanding my sexuality
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How my body works
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Social networks and entanglements
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Friendships and Dating
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Waiting, it's worth it
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Sometimes I say yes when I mean no
Parent Modules
These workshops are aimed at giving parents an updated understanding of the teen issues and practical tools to help them prepare themselves to address these key adolescent issues with their adolescent child through helping their teen develop relevant character strengths.
1. Parents in the Front Row: Understanding My Teen through the 5 Dimensions*
2. Adolescent Self Esteem
3. An unpostponable task: Talking to my teens about sexuality*
4. Helping Our Children In Self-Mastery
5. Pressures Of Adolescence - Peer Pressure
6. The Art Of Being A Good Friend
7. Pornography : Harmless Fun?
8. It Is Worthwhile!
9. Walking The Talk
* Topics covered in 2025.