Optio Provides Support to the Families of Women Who Died from Maternal Causes

Over the last decade, more than 900 women have died of maternal causes in Honduras. Optio’s Siempre Vivas campaign, which was launched in July 2020 and will continue through 2022, aims to support the families of these women and ensure that their deaths become more than statistics. Each of these women are someone’s mother, someone’s wife, someone’s daughter. It is our hope that by publicly recognizing each of these women, they will become a symbol for reproductive justice in Honduras, preventing more of these deaths from occurring.

“These women and girls were vulnerable because of their socioeconomic conditions and the unreliable health system in their villages and municipalities. Each of these women have other children, husbands, mothers and brothers who now suffer from their absence and whom the State has forgotten. Faced with this reality, we cannot stand idly by.  We have to fight. ” – Clara López, Women’s Health Coordinator at Optio.

 The Siempre Vivas initiative provides medical, legal and mental health care services to close relatives of women who have died from maternal related causes. Our team of doctors, lawyers, and psychologists have also been providing these families with food and socioeconomic support, services that were especially necessary after two category 4 hurricanes destroyed their houses and washed away many of their belongings in  November 2020.