Grant Journal Entry – November 2019

Proyecto Vida Mujer is a non-profit project run by another nonprofit organization called CEPIA. It was created when the Paul-Bill Chester Foundation donated 1,000 IUDs to CEPIA as part of their project, to bring awareness and care to women in areas of poverty. CEPIA is now in charge of the project in Costa Rica and is dedicated to helping as many women as possible.

The project arose after seeing the number of unplanned pregnancies that are occurring in Costa Rica, especially teenage girls. After multiple statistics, it was found that teenage girls living in poverty, with no education, of ethnic minorities, and from rural areas were three times more prone to get pregnant. We decided to join this project because women’s rights and the health of our community is very important to us. So far, we have been a part of one campaign in Guanacaste, where we helped around 100 women. With around 500 IUDs left, we would like to have more campaigns all around Costa Rica, and we are now discussing a campaign in San Jose sometime during Spring.

Our mission is to nurture the importance of health education and women’s rights and in the process empower women in poverty by providing health services, education, and psychological help. The grant would provide us to expand to other rural places in Costa Rica where health services, especially for women are almost non-existent. Also, the grant would help pay for transportation, lodging, and food for all volunteers, and doctors at the event. Furthermore, the grant would cover the expenses of women at the events living in extreme poverty who are unable to afford pads, pain relievers, tampons, and more.

This project is important because not only does it empower women in poverty all over Costa Rica and helps them greatly, but it also raises awareness and initiates a spark of hope and faith for a better future where there’s an equity of rights amongst genders. This project can help avoid any unwanted or unplanned pregnancies that these women can’t afford. With the IUD, these women can focus more on getting jobs, studying, and working to help themselves out of poverty.Â

For our next campaign in San Jose, we would be asking for $400 in total, which would help us pay for pads which are around $14 for 3 women, Ibuprofen package which is $7 per woman and then the hotel and food expenses for our volunteers. For our San Jose campaign, there would be around 4 or 5 volunteers and a few doctors that fly down from the US. The campaign would last two days, so the volunteers would have to stay for around 3 nights. In the case of our whole project, we try to have around 2 or 3 campaigns per year, so the project will end when we run out of IUDs, which is expected to be in 2 or 3 years.

After the project is completed, it is expected to have empowered 1,000 women, to help them find their values and focus on their jobs to overcome their poverty. If this expected outcome goes as planned, it could help empower women for generations to come, as Costa Rica’s economy would improve and make Costa Rica a better place for everyone living there. The children would be able to get a better education which l