History

WINGS’ story began in 1999 when Sue Patterson, a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer living in Guatemala, received a phone call from a friend asking for financial help to provide seven women, each of whom had at least eight children, with voluntary tubal ligations. Moved by the women’s desire to take charge of their reproductive lives and better provide for their existing children, Sue solicited donations from her friends. She was surprised to receive over $4,000 in donations from the initial plea. Impressed by this generosity as well as the widespread need for funds to support family planning in Guatemala, Sue decided to create an organization in order to continue helping men and women plan their families. Realizing the immense need for reproductive health and family planning services in Guatemala, Sue founded WINGS. Today, WINGS runs five programs that reach more than 30,000 women, men and youth annually and that have won international recognition for innovation and effectiveness. 

Despite growing drastically over the past decade, WINGS has stayed true to its mission of creating opportunities for Guatemalan families to improve their lives by providing them with family planning education and access to reproductive health services. We accomplish this by offering subsidies for short- and long-term family planning methods, reproductive health and family planning education for women, men and adolescents, cervical cancer screening, and advocacy to improve public health services, and training for other organizations on reproductive health and program development. 

Timeline

1999

  • Developed a partnership with APROFAM and began subsidizing family planning services.

2000

  • Expanded service area to include two low-income areas of Guatemala City and several communities in the departments of Chimaltenango and Escuintla.
  • Incorporated officially in the U.S. State of Delaware.

2001

  • Achieved U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit status.
  • Hired first full-time staff member to provide reproductive health education.
  • Began providing Pap smears to screen for cervical cancer, referring women to appropriate follow up services when necessary. 200 women were screened in the first year.

2002

2003

  • Achieved official non-profit status in Guatemala.

2004

  • Launched Youth WINGS program in October 2004 to educate adolescents about reproductive health and provide access to family planning services.
  • Hired Meira Neggaz as WINGS’ first full-time Executive Director.

2005

2006

  • Incorporated VIA/Cryo method into Cervical Cancer Prevention Program, allowing for same-day delivery of results as well as same-day treatment for up to half of abnormalities.
  • In partnership with Vivamos Mejor, launched WINGS programming in Sololá department.
  • Voluntarily underwent first external audit.

2007

  • Received the Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation’s Apoyando a Quienes Apoyan award for non-profit excellence in Guatemala.
  • Launched WINGS for Men program to raise awareness among men about sexual and reproductive health and counter common myths and misconceptions about family planning.
  • Developed Advocates for Youth program, working with the Ministries of Health and Education in Chimaltenango to improve sex education and health services for youth in accordance with the 2006 Law of Universal Access to Family Planning.

2008

  • Hired our first full-time Finance Director and a second Program Director.
  • Evaluated programs to strengthen implementation and increase impact.

2009

  • Expanded the family planning initiative to the Petén, Guatemala's northernmost province.
  • Hired two new Family Planning Educators and a Family Planning Program Coordinator.

2010

  • Named a finalist at the International Health Promotion Awards in Rome, Italy. 
  • Staff members were invited to speak at international health conferences in Brazil, Guatemala City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • Partnered with major global donors such as USAID and the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation.
  • Feature film, "It all begins with family planning..." produced in honor of WINGS' 10th Anniversary in 2011. The film documents the efforts of WINGS’ Family Planning Educator, Evelyn Roquel, as she works to overcome some of the country’s most challenging socio-cultural barriers to health in the communities surrounding Lake Atitlan.
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