Though it was still dark when Nate and Juan started to load the van, the rest of the brigade joined them soon after and here are some of them, ready to go!   You may recognize Valeria, Karla and Sara (front left) from our last brigade, who had so much fun, they wanted to join us again.  There’s  Dr. Roberto, standing tall in the back row and Nate’s perpetually smiling face in front.

Just touched down in Guadalajara for our spring project.  Our Program and Marketing Director, Nate Harris, will be leading this project in Tizapan el Alto, Jalisco with our UVM Brigade Director, Dr. Roberto Martinez.    Though this is Nate’s first time heading a project launch, he’s got a great team to help him: Patricia (Paty) Garibay Fernandez del Valle and Juan Fonseca Velazquez are joining him too.  Paty was instrumental in helping our founder, Laura Libman, get Tia off the ground more than ten years ago and has been involved in many of our projects since. Juan has been on every project for the last 5 or 6 years and his assistance will be invaluable as always.  Tomorrow, Tia’s team and UVM’s brigade will arrive in Tizapan.

Friends, volunteers and staff members at Tia are all celebrating International Women’s Day by remembering our 320 Community Health Workers, most of whom are women.  Each are responsible for making life better and healthier for all the people in their villages and setting an example to their daughters and sons on giving back to their communities.  These women also are changing villagers’ perception about women in general, raising the level of respect and honor.  Some have become trusted political representatives for their communities in local government, ensuring that their daughters will be more valued when they become women too.

We are very busy these days preparing for our project launch the week of March 14th in Tizapan el Alto, Jalisco.  While Laura and Nate were doing their site visit with Dr. Roberto Martinez of UVM (Universidad del Valle de Mexico) just before Valentine’s Day, we had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. César Octavio Solorio, the director of the health center for the municipality.  He was very excited about the project and connected us to everyone we needed.

We spent a very productive half hour with the Presidente Municipal José Santiago Coronado Valencia and were then introduced to Lic. Gerardo Barba from the health department where we really hammered out all the details of the project, including food and lodging for the brigades and where classes and graduation would be held.  Stay tuned for more…

Tia will be bringing the newest fact sheets on Zika in Spanish to disperse in while we are in Mexico next week, thanks to Hesperian Foundation, who also are the publishers of the health care worker manuals we distribute to every Promotora.  Click here for the English language version: English Zika Fact Sheet.  And here is the same in Spanish: Spanish Zika Fact Sheet.

Unfortunately, Zika is harming the already most vulnerable populations in Latin America, where women have been asked to avoid pregnancy, but have not been given broad access to contraception.

This was just published by Jill Filopovic in the Washington Post [click on the quote to read the whole article], “According to Gallup polling, people living in Latin American are less likely to say that women are treated with respect and dignity than people living anywhere else in the world. Violence against women is endemic — in Peru, for example, half of women say their first sexual experience was forced. Poverty remains feminized. Contraception access is improving, but remains low for adolescents and low-income women in particular.”