Health education for rural Oaxacan women

Summary

Critical health education and organizing strategies will support the efforts of indigenous women in the Sierra Mixteca, whose basic human and reproductive rights are systematically violated.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

One would have to walk six hours from the nearest road to reach a rural Oaxacan community of the Sierra Mixteca. Few outside resources or government health services are available to these isolated communities. Indigenous women have no access to current health resources and have little information on their body's reproductive system or their right to protect it. They are routinely subjected to sterilization without being offered alternative birth control.

How will this project solve this problem?

In a year-long program 85 indigenous women will learn about basic health education and human right including: how to exercise their right to protect their bodies and not be violated; general female anatomy; reproductive health; and family planning.

Potential Long Term Impact

As leaders, these women will empower their peers by traveling to remote villages and teaching 1100 women and girls. Training fees, travel expenses, & materials must be funded. Each donation of $200 supports one woman's participation in the program.

Project Message

Imagine you couldn't go to the doctor unchaparoned and sterilization was your only birth control. You wouldn't know you had the right to ask questions, to demand alternatives, to protect your body.
- Beatriz Salinas Aviles, Program Coordinator

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).

Resources