|
Family
Planning Initiative
Guatemala’s government acknowledges that
control of one’s reproduction is a basic human right, yet
little is being done to ensure access and affordability.
WINGS’ Family Planning Initiative involves intensive
outreach and education in low-income, rural, and/or
indigenous communities, defraying the costs of family
planning methods for those Guatemalans who are unable to
pay, targeting cultural and religious barriers, and
training local health promoters and partner organizations to promote family
planning among their constituents.
Why is this
program necessary?
Guatemala’s socio-economic indicators
are some of the worst in Latin America. Family planning,
acknowledged as a basic right, can markedly improve them:
-
56% of Guatemalans live below the poverty
line and 16% live in extreme poverty. (Poverty Profile,
2002)
-
43% of Guatemalans suffer from chronic
malnutrition and 24% of children under five have a low
weight for age. (World Bank 2003, UNDP 2004)
-
31% of Guatemalans are illiterate. (Poverty
Profile, 2002)
-
Maternal mortality rates are high at 153
out of 100,000 and six times as many infants die in
Guatemala compared to the United States. (Pan American
Health Organization, 2002)
Despite the assertion by the Guatemalan
government that accessibility to family planning is a
universal right, Guatemala’s statistics concerning
fertility are among the worst in the region:
-
The fertility rate is 4.4, far higher
than the 2.7 average for Latin America and the Caribbean.
(Population Reference Bureau, 2005)
-
The annual population growth rate is the
highest in Latin America at 2.8% with an expected
doubling within 25 years. (Population Reference Bureau,
2005)
-
42% of Guatemalans are under the age of
15. (Population Reference Bureau, 2005)
-
Just 34% of women use modern birth
control methods. (Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno
Infantil. (ENSMI), 2005)
-
28% of women report having an unmet need
for family planning (Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno
Infantil. (ENSMI), 2005)
What does WINGS’
Family Planning Initiative do?
WINGS’ Family Planning Program aims to
ensure that Guatemalans are able to make informed
decisions around family planning and that they have access
to methods when desired. The program revolves around
addressing barriers, including geographic isolation,
inability to pay for services, lack of knowledge, cultural
and language barriers, and paternalistic norms by:
-
Conducting outreach in low-income, rural
and/or indigenous communities and providing both
reproductive health talks and family planning clinics;
-
Working with local organizations to
ensure that information is delivered in a culturally and
linguistically appropriate manner within each community
(many rural women do not speak Spanish);
-
Subsidizing or paying outright for the
costs of family planning methods for people unable to
afford them;
-
Targeting men for educational talks,
working to involve them in family planning decision-making,
dispelling myths related to family planning, and
educating them about Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) and
health risks to women who have high parity births, etc.;
-
Training field staff of other
organizations so that they can provide accurate
information to their constituents;
-
Training and placing family planning
promoters in communities lacking services; and
-
Donating temporary birth-control methods
to partner organizations and working with them to ensure
provision of high quality, safe, and effective family
planning services.
 |
TESTIMONIAL:
Victoria (26) lives with her husband
and four children, surviving on a meager salary.
She has wanted to have a tubal ligation for a
long time, but has never had enough money to pay for
the operation. She even went to her employer to ask
for help, but was met with disdain and disapproval.
Victoria heard there was going to be
a WINGS-sponsored voluntary tubal ligation clinic
nearby, and she discovered WINGS could subsidize her
tubal ligation at this mobile clinic. So finally she
had the surgery she had so longed for.
“I feel so much happier now, knowing
that my life is going to change as I will not have
to have any more children. It means that my family’s
and my life can now improve. Thank you.”
Maria Luz is 23 years old, a single
mother with four young children, and has very few
resources. Every day, Maria Luz faces difficulties
as she strives to feed her children and find stable
work. Her sister, who lives several hours away by
bus, told Maria that a WINGS-sponsored mobile unit
giving voluntary tubal ligations, would be visiting
her town. Despite the distance between Maria and her
sister’s towns she decided to go so she could have a
tubal ligation, as she feels she already has enough
children.
“I am very satisfied with the
operation. I believe it is the best decision I could
have made, as now I feel my four children will have
more opportunities.”
|
|
 |
