Family Planning & Reproductive Health
Family planning is a stated policy of the Venezuelan government, but the nation has not been able to keep up with the tremendous demand for this critical elective service. In a country whose population has more than quadrupled over the past 60 years, the unmet need for family planning remains enormous. In the state of Sucre, where we work, the teen pregnancy rate is one of the highest in the country, placing it among the highest in the Caribbean basin, and hence in the world.
The Turimiquire Foundation, through our sister organization Fundación ServYr in Venezuela, has helped to re-animate family planning services in the state of Sucre. We have supported and expanded family planning in two public hospitals, several private clinics, urban “ambulatorios” (free walk-in public health facilities), and in selected rural ambulatorios in three counties. We offer reproductive health education, contraceptives, medical procedures, logistic, and administrative support for family planning services and reproductive health workshops. All services are implemented by Venezuelan health care professionals in strict accordance with Venezuelan public health policies.
From 1997 through 2018, we have delivered 117,740+ Couple Years of Protection (CYPs), the metric by which USAID measures family planning achievement, directly serving more than 50,000 rural women and their families, an estimated (at least) 200,000 beneficiaries. We have also offered more than 3000 Responsible Sexuality and Reproductive Health Workshops to more than 55,000 student and adult participants.
THANKS to several grants from the Erik and Edith Bergstrom Foundation, we have been able to sustain and extend our family planning services in the face of the intense demand that we are facing down here. We are working to fill the widespread shortage and high cost of reversible contraceptive methods with the stability of longer acting methods, i.e., IUDs, implants, sterilizations.
Our impact has been substantive and life-changing.
2019 Turimiquire Foundation
