Sparking Dialogue with the Women's Health Team

Vilma leads a workshop in San Juan La Laguna

Our Women's Right to Health team works mainly in and around Santiago Atitlán, but Vilma and Rebeca are advocates for the health of women across the Lake Atitlán region. They believe that whether or not a woman is a mother—and whether or not she ever plans to be—she deserves access to knowledge that equips her to care for her whole body and her whole self. As such, they are dedicated to facilitating open, honest conversation about women’s bodies, health, and sexuality wherever and whenever they can.

While Vilma and Rebeca coordinate the logistics of our women's health projects, they are health educators first, passionate about empowering women to care for their own bodies. They regularly lead educational sessions for project participants, but earlier this fall, Vilma and Rebeca traveled out into communities all around Lake Atitlán to lead workshops on sexual and reproductive health with women of all ages.

First, Vilma set off across the lake to an area she rarely visits in the course of her work. Recognized for her experience as a family planning educator, she was invited to bring a workshop on that topic to women in six different communities along the lake’s northeast edge. Throughout the month of September, she crossed the lake to meet women in their own communities.

Vilma discusses a variety of family planning methods with workshop participants

​Taboos around women’s bodies often produce misconceptions about family planning methods and their relationship to reproductive health. Vilma notes that her work often consists of challenging these misconceptions. “Many times women will say to other women, ‘That kind of family planning didn’t work for me, so it won’t work for you’—or, ‘It made me sick, so it will hurt you too,’” she says. “So perhaps the most important thing I explain during the sessions is that every woman’s body is different, and not all methods work for all bodies.”

---

During the last week of September, Vilma and Rebeca stepped out of the office to attend an activity right here in Santiago Atitlán. They had been invited to participate in a health fair hosted by our partner health clinic Rxiin Tnamet in honor of World Contraception Day and asked to present on the topic of sexual and reproductive anatomy to the high school students in attendance. So Vilma and Rebeca brought their diagrams and their plastic models and spent the day teaching teens about their own bodies.

Rebeca gives an anatomy presentation to students attending the health fair

Students visit the Pueblo a Pueblo booth

“We participated in this activity because I believe that if we can prevent unplanned pregnancies, then we will see fewer single mothers in our community,” Vilma reflected. “Young people have to learn to respect women and women’s bodies.” She also noted the importance of a deep understanding of reproductive health topics. “Many people know their own anatomy in an intellectual sense, but they don’t understand it on a personal level, as it relates to their own emotions and desires. We want our community to be made up of people who are capable of making empowered decisions about their own health and their own futures. That is why it is important to educate young people.”

---

​Vilma and Rebeca’s regular duties have brought them back to the Pueblo a Pueblo office, but they remain as invested as ever in empowering women through health education—both here at home and on the road!

*Photos by Alexandra Harrison-Cripps and Livvy Runyon ​​