Improving Maternal-Infant Health for Mayan Women

Pueblo a Pueblo’s Maternal Child Health program launched the Family Planning Champions project last year to help break the silence surrounding sexuality and reproductive health among rural women in Guatemala. But what began as informal one-on-one conversations between our trained community educators and their neighbors has now grown into widespread community discussions held in public and private institutions.

Over the past few months, our Champions have begun to collaborate with new partners to provide more local opportunities for women to learn about key topics in women’s health. Their first outreach events were held in collaboration with the coordinator of the Municipal Office for Women. Twenty-four women of all ages from Santiago Atitlan attended the trainings, which focused on reproductive health, family planning techniques and how to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy. Later in the month, Champions also led two workshops for the employees of the Rxiin Tnament health clinic on similar topics.

The most exciting opportunity for our Champions, however, was to provide sexual and reproductive health classes to adolescents in Chukmuk’s high school. In September three Champions led sessions for boys and girls across three grade levels, all aged 13 through 17 years old. They spoke about the physiology and anatomy of male and female reproductive systems, sexually transmitted diseases, and what steps to take to prevent health risks like cervical cancer.

Discussions like these are both unprecedented and of critical importance. In Guatemala, particularly in rural areas, topics related to sexual health are often avoided, and there is no nationwide curriculum to discuss health or sexual education within schools. As a result, the country has the one of the lowest rates of contraceptive usage and one of the highest fertility rates in Latin America.

Here at Pueblo a Pueblo, we are excited to expand our Family Planning Champions project and to use every outreach event as an opportunity to break the local silence on reproductive health issues.