GPA believes women leaders are powerful agents for improving the health and well-being of their communities.
Engaging Community Leaders and Medical Personnel
GPA's overarching goal is for women and children to have the opportunity to live full, healthy, self-determined lives that are free of violence and discrimination. This means women can expect to have safe pregnancies and healthy babies, and that they have the freedom to make their own reproductive choices. This means that children, both girls and boys can thrive. This means that whole communities value the health and lives of women and children, prioritize their care and take actions to decrease practices that can put the health and lives of women and girls at risk, such as gender-based violence and early marriage. This also means that health personnel provide quality and culturally respectful care to the Indigenous and rural women they serve, and eliminate practices that violate their rights.
Women Caring for Women Program and Men's Workshops
Young women in a Women Caring for Women workshop in Guaquitepec
Men reflecting on gender roles in their communities during a Men's Workshop
GPA engages key groups of women and men in communities throughout Chiapas, Mexico through an in-depth series of workshops and activities so that they are sensitized to and active in the health of women and girls. Our programs create the opportunity for exchanges among the groups of women and men, and allow for a critical reflection of everyday practices, beliefs and social norms that can lead to gender-based inequalities. We support the groups in their initiatives, whether individual or collective, to promote changes that can create the conditions for women and girls to lead dignified, healthy lives.
In our Women Caring for Women Program, GPA works with and supports groups of women using a gender and rights-based approach to provide the information and tools for leading healthy lives. Women and adolescents learn about their rights and take actions to decrease the daily practices that can put their health and lives at risk, while creating a sense of solidarity with each other.
In our Men's Workshops, we work with and support groups of men so that they can have the tools and information that allows them to question gender beliefs, roles and practices that can put the health and lives of women and girls at risk, and take actions to eliminate these practices.
Respectful Maternal Care Program for Healthcare Personnel
Medical personnel take part in an activity in San Cristobal de las Casas
Our Respectful Maternal Care program works with health practitioners to ensure they provide women the best quality and standard of care possible, and respect their rights during their pregnancy, birth and delivery services. This includes care that is free of violence and discrimination. The program consists of a series of workshops with medical practitioners; observations of medical practices at clinics and hospitals; surveys of service users; the creation of individual and collective improvement plans, meetings with healthcare management and follow up observations. Over the past five years we have been working in the Los Altos, Palenque and Ocosingo regions of Chiapas, and in Yucatán.