Family Planning Service Provision
WINGS has developed partnerships with major health care providers in Guatemala in order to subsidize family planning services. Since 2000, we have partnered with the Asociación Pro-Bienestar de la Familia de Guatemala (APROFAM), the country’s largest private provider of reproductive health services and an International Planned Parenthood affiliate. We currently subsidize three stationary APROFAM clinics as well as APROFAM mobile clinics in 13 departments. Family planning methods subsidized through these partnerships include tubal ligations, vasectomies, Jadelle (a five-year reversible implant), and intrauterine devices (IUDs). In addition to providing referrals for and promoting these services, WINGS’ staff members regularly monitor the programs, ensuring high-quality service delivery.
In order to increase access to temporary family planning methods, WINGS trains and supplies community family planning promoters and partner organizations. These promoters work and live in rural areas, and provide information and counseling to clients about family planning and reproductive health. If a community member chooses to use a temporary family planning method, he or she can purchase it directly from the health promoter at a low cost. The methods that are currently available through health promoters are: birth control pills, Depo-Provera (a three-month injectable contraceptive), Cyclofem (a one-month injectable contraceptive), and condoms. The family planning methods are donated by WINGS to the promoters, who then keep the nominal fees charged to users as a small profit in exchange for providing family planning services in their communities.