 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
I have spent most of my time working on the "Improving Women’s Reproductive Health and Human Rights in South-Eastern Morazán" campaign. Steve and Irma worked out the details of the project so that when I arrived we were practically ready to begin. In a two day training session we taught MDM Health Promoters, Health Promoters from the Ministry of Health and local midwives, basic information about female anatomy, STDs, gynecological cancers and human rights. This training prepared participants to give a brief talk at the beginning of each of our scheduled community visits. During these two days, I grasped what the reality is for many of these women: They have to live in a society where women are not valued nearly as much as men. The machismo begins at birth—a midwife receives a considerably higher fee for delivering a baby boy than a baby girl. Many of the women are not permitted to leave their homes to go to the clinic, while the men may roam the streets at night and have relations with different women. One notes the discrepancy even in the children's play: There always seem to be little boys playing soccer in the street while the little girls are at home helping their mothers in the kitchen or watching their smaller brothers and sisters.
| “The machismo begins at birth—a midwife receives a considerably higher fee for delivering a baby boy than a baby girl.” |
After writing and revising the 34-page-long project, we jumped right into the first phase of community visits. The project covers a two-year time span (I would be able to participate only in the first phase, but I would love to return for the later phases). Each day began with the construction of the exam rooms using sheets and hammocks as walls. Following that the health promoters gave an interactive lecture on human rights, breast and cervical cancer, the vaginal exam and STDs. Then we took data and finally performed the examinations. Steve looked at samples for trichomonas [parasite that causes a common STD], candidiasis [yeast infection] and bacterial vaginosis [vaginal infection] in our ambulatory lab and we sent other samples to the Department of Microbiology at the National University of El Salvador for further analysis. All of the activity made for a very full day, everyday.
The work was always a challenge—providing a mobile gynecology clinic in rural El Salvador is not an easy task—and each community offered a different surprise in coordinating efforts. In Babilonia we had to carry the tables and equipment for a fifteen-minute walk down an impassable road and a few days later back up again. A few members of the community helped us out—one man carried a table, the generator and a large box on his back! In Matapalo, the community was incredible. When we arrived they were already sweeping the school and had divided the room into two, then they hung our hammocks. The two days of the actual project at least 11 community members helped throughout the day. The community's participation is essential in projects such as these.
— Wendy Hobson, MD, March 1995
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|