Family Care International (FCI) has been involved in advocacy to strengthen safe motherhood programs and policies, and expand women’s and adolescents’ choices in Bolivia since 1996. We are an active member and secretariat of the National Safe Motherhood Committee, and help to coordinate the National Inter-Agency Task Force on Maternal Mortality Reduction. These groups advocate for safe motherhood strategies in the context of the Regional Strategic Consensus on Maternal Mortality Reduction. To support these efforts, FCI facilitates forums on promoting skilled care and the role of the mid-level provider, including workshops with instructors from the schools of public health and nursing.

Prevention and Management of Violence Against Women in Pando and Sucumbíos

In Bolivia and Ecuador, FCI works with local partners to raise awareness about and develop strategies to address violence against women in indigenous communities.

Promoting Reproductive Health and Rights for Rural and Indigenous Women

Throughout Latin America, rural and indigenous women have little access to reproductive health care and virtually no culturally appropriate education materials. Working with the Conference of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB), in 2001 FCI developed ¡Cuídate! [Take Care!]—a series of easy-to-use materials, including five brochures and a flipchart—specifically for use among indigenous communities in the Bolivian lowlands. FCI also developed a training curriculum and held workshops for health promoters in Bolivia to increase their capacity to provide health education using the flipchart among indigenous communities.

To date, we have trained outreach workers, who have visited several thousand communities with ¡Cuidate!’s important messages. In addition, FCI is working with local partners in the Bolivian lowlands to help increase awareness of the national maternity health insurance and help communities monitor both the quality of and access to care.

Cultural Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health

With support from the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI), in 2007 FCI and the Interarts Foundation are working in an innovative collaboration that aims to address the cultural barriers to sexual and reproductive health services and information in the Andean region. This initiative also explores how cultural rights can bring about changes to make access to high quality SRH services, available for all in multi-cultural settings.

For more information on this project, see the attached project summary (available in Spanish only).

Working for Community-level HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education

In Bolivia, most HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment efforts are centered in urban areas and do not reach rural populations. In 2003, FCI conducted qualitative research on HIV/AIDS prevention efforts among indigenous people in Bolivia’s lowland region. The findings of this study highlighted the need for communication and for prevention strategies that respond to the cultural priorities and values of these indigenous groups.

In January 2006, FCI began a project to address the issues of HIV/AIDS prevention, transmission, and stigmatization at the community level in the Department of Pando, which borders Brazil and Peru. This project aims to promote a supportive policy environment on HIV/AIDS for vulnerable communities and involve indigenous networks and leaders in policy development and decision making at the local and national levels.

Based on these findings, the project team published "Pueblos Indígenas, ITS, VHI y SIDA," which demonstrates the importance of expanding prevention efforts to underserved areas. Visit our Publications section to download the document.

For more information contact:

Plaza España,
Calle Gregorio Reynolds,
Condominio N° 5, Casa N° 5
(Lado del Edificio María Cristina)
La Paz, Bolivia
Tel: (591) 22-41-61-35
E-mail: Bolivia@fcimail.org

Family Care International
Latin America and Caribbean Program
588 Broadway, Suite 503
New York, NY 10012
Tel : (212) 941-5300
Fax: (212) 941-5563
E-mail: lac@fcimail.org