Providing Safety & Accompaniment Training to Sexual and Reproductive Health Advocates
LOCATION:
Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama
PARTNERS:
A sophisticated network of medical professionals and volunteers who help women access reproductive health services.
FUNDERS:
The Lalor Foundation
Sexual and reproductive health advocates often risk their own lives to help women.
THE NEED:
In Central America, sexual and reproductive health advocates are one of the only resources available to women in need of certain reproductive health services. These advocacy networks are very effective, however, there are a number of obstacles that have prevented them from being as safe, secure and sustainable as they would like to be.
OUR APPROACH:
We are running a training program that aims to improve the sustainability, safety and reach of sexual and reproductive rights networks in Central America. Each of the tools and modules, designed by medical and digital security experts from the region, were successfully piloted by Optio in Nicaragua and El Salvador in 2019, and are now being implemented on a regional level. The outcome(s) of the training will be for each reproductive rights network to:
- Maintain and update security and accompaniment protocols.
- Safely track information about each of the women their network accompanies using a secure registry database.
- Follow up with the women they accompany in a safe and systematic way.
- Easily access other sexual and reproductive health advocacy networks in the region.