Family Planning Initiative
Access to family planning education and services is recognized as a universal right and protected by law in Guatemala. However, many men and women still lack the information and health services that would allow them to freely determine the number and spacing of their children. Only 34% of women of reproductive age in Guatemala use a modern method of birth control, while almost a third report an unmet need for family planning. Guatemala’s fertility rate, at 4.4, is the highest in Latin America. At the current annual growth rate of 2.5%, the population is expected to double within the next 30 years. In the past 50 years, the country’s population has quadrupled.
Large families place a strain on household resources, making it difficult for parents to invest sufficiently in each child’s nutrition, health, and education. Female children are usually the first to suffer the negative consequences. These dynamics at the household level also affect prospects for Guatemala’s broader economic development, exacerbating problems of poverty, illiteracy and poor health. Population pressures increase demand on public services and threaten Guatemala’s natural environment.
A 2005 study by WINGS identified a number of factors that contribute to low contraceptive use in Guatemala, including lack of information, distance to services, cost of services, cultural and language barriers, partner disapproval, and religious opposition. These obstacles are especially pervasive in low-income, rural, and indigenous communities, where fertility rates are significantly higher than the average.
WINGS’ Family Planning Initiative works to address each of these barriers by:
- Conducting educational talks in low-income, rural and/or indigenous communities, providing information on sexual and reproductive health, reproductive risk, anatomy, responsible parenting, and family planning;
- Providing references to WINGS-subsidized family planning services;
- Partnering with health care providers to subsidize long-term and permanent family planning methods;
- Training and supplying volunteer health promoters and partner organizations who provide temporary family planning methods in their communities;
- Working with men’s groups to address gender issues and cultural barriers to family planning;
- Providing small loans to community-based family planning promoters to help them launch or grow their businesses.
The Family Planning Initiative focuses on the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, and Petén. We also partner with health care providers to subsidize services nationwide, share materials widely so that our programs can be replicated elsewhere, and provide training to other organizations in family planning and reproductive health.
WINGS strives to ensure that all services are delivered in a culturally and linguistically-appropriate manner and respects the principle of informed choice for family planning.