Women's Health Champions

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.

Links:

• Women's Health Champions at Pueblo a Pueblo