We've been pretty busy over the past 15 years providing communities in the impoverished Turimiquire region of Venezuela with basic medical and education services. Starting from scratch, on a shoestring budget, with a total commitment to value and efficiency, it's been an amazing - and amazingly gratifying - journey. And the results, compiled between 1997-2010, speak for themselves:
-
As the first family planning NGO in the Turimiquire region, we've built a first-rate team of Venezuelan professionals - doctors, nurses, sociologists, social workers, educators and administrators - who are committed to serving the poor. We are delivering these services where almost none heretofore existed!
-
In a world where a 30-year-old campesina (country) woman will typically find herself overwhelmed with eight children and very few resources to raise them, we have empowered over 24,000 women with what most of us simply take for granted - the right to control our own fertility! This includes over 3,200 tubal sterilizations for qualified candidates, the most popular contraceptive method for mature women and their families here in Latin America.
-
Venezuela has one of the chronically highest teenage pregnancy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. We've offered 1,865 Workshops in Sexual and Reproductive Health to over 40,000 participants, primarily students and teenagers. Many of these youngsters have acted to protect their young lives from premature pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
-
Family planning is the crucial first step towards educating the next generation. Once families have gained control over their fertility, they can concentrate on giving their children the best possible future through schooling. We have responded with a successful high school scholarship program that is transforming a whole generation of rural youth.
-
Many of our high school graduates are now continuing in higher education at the college level with our support - truly a new step for this remote rural community!
Our work continues to grow in 2011. The enormous unsatisfied rural and urban demand for family planning, and the widely unmet need for reproductive health services, far exceed our current capacity to provide, but we are ready and eager to expand our services with your support. Our scholarship program is poised to grow as more and more students eagerly respond to this first time opportunity to go to high school and even to college!
Comments, thoughts, advice? Email us, we’d love to hear from you!
Want to help? Please donate here - It's tax deductible and over 92 cents of every dollar goes directly into the field!
|
|
