Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn-SOFA[1] and TOYA Foundation assisted more than 120 women during mobile clinics, and sensitized hundreds of people through a program on sexual and reproductive health, launched after the earthquake of August 14, 2021.
SOFA and TOYA Foundation are conducting a large awareness campaign and mobile clinics on sexual and reproductive health in the south of the country, since December 1, 2021. The initiative is supported by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Activities are monitored and evaluated by the Collective of Haitian Women.
Through this project, coordinated and implemented by SOFA in Grand-Anse, and co-executed by TOYA Foundation in the South, the two feminist organizations want to raise women’s awareness of contraceptive methods, contribute to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, and offer post-abortion support to women in need. At the same time, they intend to educate and sensitize adolescents on sexuality and early pregnancy.
On December 28 and 29, about ten facilitators and four nurses were trained in Jérémie on the themes of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV), as a prelude to community mobilizations. Six of the facilitators came from Abricots, a town in Grand-Anse. The others came from the south department.
To alert people to SRH issues and help them prevent STIs, facilitators engage in mass and group awareness initiatives. To do this, they visit schools, churches, community organizations and markets.
Outreach activities in Aquin began in early 2022. “Many teenage girls get pregnant in this area,” according to Perside Sanon, a facilitator. Since January 13, 23 information sessions have been held for a thousand participants, over three days, in several schools. “We sometimes exceed two hours, so many are the prejudices of the participants”, says Sanon.
In January and February, 1,100 people, young and old, took part in the information sessions carried out by the facilitators in several communal sections in Les Abricots. “Many people in these localities live with myths about contraception and fear the side effects of planning methods, reports the facilitator, Laura Marie Michenaude Louis. Most of the parents come themselves but do not allow their children to come,” notes the 26-year-old young woman according to whom “a lot remains to be done.”
Cebastien Désir is a 25-year-old accountant, living in Les Abricots. He took part in the information session with his girlfriend, one year younger than him. Désir recommended a planning method to his girlfriend, so that they could better plan their careers. Since the session, the latter, reluctant before, starts “considering” her options. “Having these information sessions well before would have helped to reduce teenage pregnancies in the community,” says Cebastien Désir.
Before participating in the information session, Eramise Calixte, 20, thought that we had to have already given birth to then opt for a planning method. “I falsely thought that these methods reduced our chances of having children in the future”, says the young woman.
Services to ensure the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) of women and girls are offered through mobile clinics. These camps offer participants planning methods, including condoms. Counseling sessions are also provided on site.
Several hundred women took part in four mobile clinics organized since January 30 in Les Abricots, in the department of Grand-Anse. “These trainings are important because in the commune, children become mothers, at fourteen, fifteen and even twelve years old,” declares Marie Carolle Duverger, 52, a facilitator and supervisor of the activities of this campaign at Les Abricots.
“Some schools can have up to twenty children who become pregnant at the same time,” according to Duverger. When we go to these institutions to see the young people, their managers say they appreciate the content of the training, and they open their doors to us.”
Other activities are planned until the end of this program scheduled for March 2022.
[1] Haitian Women Solidarity
