Promote Indigenous Women's Health in Rural Peru

We have made AMAZING progress with our Women’s Health Program (it’s honestly hard for me to find the words to tell you just how amazing) thanks to your generous support of this program! Let me tell you about a few of the exciting things we've accomplished over the past few months because of your gift:

1. The existing Women’s Health Program materials underwent a thorough revision and update led by Nicole, our Curriculum Development Coordinator, and Bertha, our Women’s Health Program Manager. The training manuals for the first year of training - covering topics like menstrual hygiene, family planning, domestic violence, and STIs - were received with great enthusiasm (and great curiosity - helloooo, never had books with these drawings before!) by the promotoras at their first Women’s Health Training. 
2. We have hired 4 experienced CHWs who previously participated in our Women’s Health Program as trainers for incoming Women’s Health CHWs and they attended a 3-day leadership and development workshop in September. For many of our health workers, Women’s Health is the main reason they joined the program at all. For example take Matiasa, one of our newly-hired Women’s Health Docentes, who said, “I first signed up to be a promotora (health worker) because I had heard rumors in my community that Sacred Valley Health taught about family planning. I was very interested in learning more about this topic, and now here I am.”  It is an absolute honor to see these women step into this role.  
3. In September 2023 we conducted baseline surveys in the 12 communities that will have participating Women’s Health CHWs. Sample size was based on the population of each community and included women from 16-80 years of age. Our M&E team interviewed 105 women to gather information about existing reproductive health knowledge. This data will be used to guide our training team on areas where the knowledge gap is greatest, like STI transmission and cervical cancer prevention, and to assess program success by conducting end-program evaluations with the same set of questions. 
4. And last, but DEFINITELY not least - we hosted our first Women’s Health Training with this new cohort of promotoras on October 18th! They dug right into their new material, covering reproductive anatomy and menstrual hygiene. The office was truly buzzing with enthusiasm that day. These women were SO excited to start this journey - thank you for making that possible. 

I can’t wait to keep you updated on how this program progresses. I mean, we are just getting started and have 2 exciting years ahead of us! But for now, a big heart uterus-felt thank you for making this and so much more possible. Be sure to check out the photos to see just how much this program means, and it's not too late if you want to support this work! 

Gratefully yours,

Jenny

Links:

• Follow our work!
• Learn more