Gender Equality Guatemala Project #34708

Women's Health Champions

by Pueblo a Pueblo, Inc.

Project Report | Feb 14, 2019
Your Donation Supports Women

By Pueblo a Pueblo | Women's Health Champions

Vilma gives a Menstrual Health Ambassador training

Things are moving into place for the launch of Women’s Health Champions. Vilma has put the finishing touches on the project manual, which she will use to train the “Champions”— peer educators who will use what they learn about sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to educate and empower women in their communities. Vilma designed the curriculum specifically for this project, and as a member of the local indigenous Tz’utujil community, she created it with local cultural norms in mind.

Vilma will soon begin to select the first cohort of Champions. She and her team will choose women who can provide diverse perspectives in their peer-to-peer teaching. They will select both married and unmarried women, who will pair up to teach. Vilma is looking for women who are leaders in their communities, women who are creative, motivated, and interested in entrepreneurship. Once the cohort is selected, Vilma will be ready to bring her curriculum to life in workshops with the Champions-in-training.

We need your support to turn this project into reality. Your contribution of $10 buys one Champion’s training manual, and your contribution of $150 funds one training. We are also committed to providing each Champion with access to family planning methods so that they can translate their new knowledge of women’s health into effective self-advocacy. Your donation of $60 provides one Champion with the method of her choice for one year.

Also exciting is the ongoing development of the woman-run small business that will supply the materials needed for the Champions’ entrepreneurship activities. This social enterprise will manufacture reusable cloth menstrual pads for Champions to distribute—an opportunity for Champions to earn supplemental income while they promote menstrual health in their communities. Vilma is collaborating with the women’s health team at Aldea Maya, another community-based organization here in Santiago Atitlán, to found and support this small business through its infancy.

The enterprise already has two local women on board: Ana, who will serve as Director of Sales, and Juana María, who will serve as Director of Education. Both will also contribute to the business as seamstresses. Ana and Juana María will soon begin sewing training with a local collective of women artisans to gain the machine-sewing skills they need to produce the pads. All team members will also be trained to serve as menstrual health ambassadors in their communities in accordance with the social mission of the business. Vilma led the first training this week!

This new social enterprise needs your help to get off the ground. Like the leaders of any new business, Ana and Juana María need seed capital in order to start making, selling, and promoting their product. Their most pressing needs are sewing supplies and materials to make reusable pads.

Women’s Health Champions offers opportunities for women to build positive change in their communities as educators, innovators, and entrepreneurs—and it equips those same women to better care for their own bodies and selves. With your help, we can launch this project and bring life-changing education to women and girls who need it—consider making a contribution to Women’s Health Champions today!

Vilma meets with the team of the social enterprise

Links:

Women's Health Champions at Pueblo a Pueblo

Permalink

Nov 19, 2018
Laying the Groundwork

By Pueblo a Pueblo | Women's Health Champions

Vilma gives a presentation about menstruation

Every morning for the past week, instead of coming to work at the Pueblo a Pueblo office, Women’s Health Champions project manager Vilma Mendoza has traveled by boat to the other side of Lake Atitlán. She has crossed the lake each day to participate in a training led by Days for Girls, an organization which, like Vilma, advocates for the health and well-being of young women.

During her week at Days for Girls, Vilma received workshops in sewing and business planning as well as a primer in Days for Girls’ own menstruation-centered women’s health curriculum. She is preparing to act as mentor and health advisor to a small business, still in its infancy, which will produce and distribute reusable cloth menstrual pads in and around Santiago Atitlán.

This social enterprise will play a key role in the Women’s Health Champions project: it will supply the pads that participating peer educators, or “Champions”, will distribute to other women in their communities. By selling pads, Champions will make valuable income for themselves at the same time that they promote environmental sustainability and good menstrual hygiene.The pads, which last for at least three years, are an economical alternative to the disposable pads that most women in Santiago Atitlán buy each month, an important option for women who must often find creative ways to meet their own needs in the allocation of scarce familial resources.

Vilma's time with Days for Girls also left her newly inspired to engage girls in conversations about women's health. "Menstruation is not a disease, and it does not have to be debilitating," she notes. "We must speak to young girls to interrupt these harmful beliefs and attitudes before they take root." The Champions will offer girls new knowledge of how to care for their bodies as well as a concrete tool to help them do just that: the pads.

Things are moving into place for the launch of Women’s Health Champions. Vilma has meticulously designed and redesigned the project curriculum. She has started meeting with the leaders of the reusable pad business, facilitating key initial conversations that will steer the group to success. She has even started spreading the word about the product, leading demo sessions and educational presentations related to menstruation. The last step is participation from donors like you—Women’s Health Champions needs funding to get off the ground! Please consider supporting this vital new project today.

Vilma shows off the pads at a demo session

Links:

Women's Health Champions at Pueblo a Pueblo

Permalink

‹ 1 2

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.