At your request, we are now featuring one NGO at a time and will notify
you every couple of weeks about a new NGO.
On April 1, we feature WINGS in Guatemala, an organization that provides reproductive
health services across Guatemala, where half the population is under
16 years old. WINGS offers family planning, cervical cancer screenings,
and counseling to young women, youth and even men! Please read
about WINGS' innovative approaches to reproductive health in a country
where poverty and cultural barriers often prevent young women from
exercising control over their own lives.
Having visited Guatemala twice and done a fair amount of research on the
country, I am well aware that most low income Guatemalan women do not receive
contraceptive services because they cannot afford them or because cultural
barriers stand in the way. Guatemala has the highest fertility rate in
Latin America. Because women have so many children, one-half of Guatemalan
children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
WINGS is an NGO that started in 1999 when a retired US Foreign Service
Officer living in Guatemala was asked for help for seven women, each of
whom had eight children, and who wanted tubal ligations. In ten years,
WINGS has become an extensive program, working in all parts of Guatemala,
that provides birth control, does cervical cancer screening, and offers
peer education on reproductive health and family planning to adolescents.
There are several aspects of WINGS’ work that are extremely innovative.
First, WINGS is committed to capacity-building across Guatemala which means
that it shares what it knows with other organizations. How does WINGS do
this?
It trains other organizations and their staffs in WINGS methodologies;
It provides funds to other organizations, such as family planning programs
at various clinics;
It shares its educational materials and programs with other groups.
Second, WINGS has broadened its scope to include men, the only organization
in Guatemala to do so. As WINGS notes, "Guatemala remains highly paternalistic
with widespread machista attitudes about women’s roles. The fact that virtually
all reproductive health and family planning programs target women rather
than men only compounds this problem." WINGS for Men provides educational
workshops and puts on mass media campaigns targeting men.
Finally, and perhaps most important of all, is WINGS for Youth. Almost
half of the population is under 15 and has almost no information about
sex and reproduction. Approximately half of Guatemala’s young women have
one child by the time they are 19. Even though the government passed
a law requiring access to family planning for all, youth rarely get access
in large part because teachers and health providers remain unaware of their
obligation to provide sex education. WINGS trains youth to be peer advisers
to make up for this gap in services. Hopefully, the next generation of
Guatemalans will be more knowledgeable and prepared than today’s adults.
Please learn about WINGS’ invaluable work and contribute in any way you
can at
their excellent website.
Having visited Guatemala twice and done a fair amount of research on the
country, I am well aware that most low income Guatemalan women do not receive
contraceptive services because they cannot afford them or because cultural
barriers stand in the way. Guatemala has the highest fertility rate in
Latin America. Because women have so many children, one-half of Guatemalan
children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
