The goal of SVH's Women's Health Program is to improve women's access to reproductive health care and information so that they are able to adopt preventative practices and feel empowered to make informed decisions about their bodies. By training health workers in Women's Health, this program will give women in remote, indigenous communities in Peru life changing education about really important topics like menstrual hygiene, contraception methods, pre- and post-natal care, and breastfeeding.
According to the Peruvian Ministry of Health, 23% of girls between the ages of 12-17 living in rural areas of the country are either pregnant or have at least 1 child (MINSA, 2020). Education about sexual health is limited in Peru's public school system and often considered taboo. In fact, one of our local staff members, a 26 year-old woman with a college-level education, said that she did not learn most of what she now knows about reproductive health until working at SVH.
With your help, we'll train 19 CHWs in advanced reproductive and sexual health topics (like menstruation, family planning, and maternal-child health) who can then disseminate that information to over 1,250 women living in their communities. This empowers indigenous women with educational and economic opportunities as CHWs and provides women in our partner communities with safe, supportive spaces to ask questions and share experiences, giving them more agency in their reproductive health choices.
According to the World Health Organization's Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (2018), "Healthy, educated and empowered women...can foster the changes needed to create empowered communities and, consequently, a more sustainable and peaceful future for all." Our goal is that by empowering women to make informed decisions about their bodies and their reproductive health we can contribute to conditions that will enable entire communities to thrive on their own terms.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
