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Report on MADRE's Women's Health Programs

Background

According to the World Health Organization, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." MADRE recognizes the relationship between women's health and human rights and promotes women's health within a comprehensive rights-based framework. Women's health around the world is affected not just by access to medical facilities and modern sanitation systems, but also by the prevalence of violence against women, racial discrimination, and lack of accurate education about HIV/AIDS transmission. MADRE works to improve access to health care for women and their families by providing primary, reproductive, and mental health services and urgently needed medical supplies and medicines, as well as education and training to empower women to become decision makers in their own lives and the lives of their communities.

With your support, and in collaboration with our sister organizations around the world, MADRE is working to fill the void left by inadequate government social service programs, and is bringing crucial women's health services and education to communities that lack access.

Thanks to your help:

In Nicaragua, our partner the CADAMUC Clinic has recently expanded to improve their pediatric and dental care facilities, and created a new testing laboratory and pharmacy to dispense medications. The clinic treats approximately 10,000 patients (most of them Indigenous) annually on the rural, underserved North Atlantic Coast. CADAMUC specializes in treating women's gynecological cancers, and was the first medical facility in the area to do so. They offer ultrasound services, as well as cryosurgery, and were recently trained and equipped by one of MADRE's professional medical volunteers in laparoscopic surgery techniques. Future plans include developing the laboratory to conduct HIV testing.

In Guatemala, the Barcenas Maquila Workers Committee, a group of women sweatshop workers dedicated to improving their communities' health and economic opportunities, recently conducted a health fair, in which 36 women received PAP smears and follow-up treatment. Collaboration among our partners is part of the MADRE model; this year, the women of Barcenas will host the director of one of our Nicaraguan sister organizations, who will conduct a series of workshops for young women in the shantytowns of Guatemala City with a focus on reproductive and preventive general health care.

The Indigenous Information Network (IIN) and the Umoja Women's Group, MADRE's Kenyan partners, have completed the first stage of a program to address female genital mutilation in Samburu communities in northern Kenya, and, with MADRE, have developed a multi-year HIV/AIDS prevention initiative for those same communities that will begin later this year. The local MADRE-supported pre-school and kindergarten have begun a curriculum in personal hygiene, and MADRE and IIN have planned a series of workshops for young women in Maasai communities in the south of the country; these workshops will address HIV transmission and issues of sanitation and personal hygiene (including how common practices, such as sharing razors or toothbrushes, spread diseases like HIV/AIDS).

None of this work would be possible without your support. All of us at MADRE and our sisters in all of our partner organizations thank you for your crucial contributions to these programs.

Updated February 2006