WOMENS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR GUATEMALAN SOLUTIONS INC

WINGS envisions a future where all Guatemalans thrive and are able to fully exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.

Every WINGS program seeks to achieve this vision, and follows the strategic plan and objectives as approved by the Board of Directors.

At the heart of every WINGS intervention or activity is an emphasis on education. This education is never the end goal but serves as the means with which we hope to improve lives. Our vision is to fundamentally change the way that Guatemalan women and girls experience reproductive health. We aim to not only provide education, but also to ensure that their informed decisions to use a contraceptive method can result in action via readily available short-acting, long-acting, or definitive contraception. Ultimately, our aim is for each participant or patient to be empowered to thrive and experience the full extent of their reproductive rights, thereby decreasing overall fertility rates.

Throughout our service provision activities, we link each step to the next: our Youth Leaders refer peers to our Volunteer Health Promoters (for short-acting methods) or to our Youth-Friendly Space (for long-acting methods); our Promoters refer their patients to our mobile units or stationary clinic for long-acting or definitive methods. Finally, patients seen in our mobile units or stationary clinic get referred back to their community's Promoter, when available, to answer questions that might arise. By linking all these women, and some men, to each other, we aim to build a population that is more knowledgeable about their own bodies and the rights they possess.

The basis of our clinical services is patient-centered care. We provide interventions that always take into account each patient's individual needs and values while allowing the patient to the decision making process. This counselling style can be particularly meaningful when a woman has not experienced a sense of voice in her life before. If she is accustomed to a male making decisions for her, our approach can be both frightening and exhilarating for her. Our educators, nurses, and doctors are all trained in effective communication strategies to encourage women in particular to feel at ease making decisions and feeling comfortable with those decisions.

Working in 16 predominantly rural, indigenous, and underserved provinces in Guatemala, we collaborate with local partners to implement the following activities:

YOUTH PEER EDUCATION PROGRAM
Young women and men (ages 13 to 19) trained as Youth Leaders provide accurate reproductive health information and service referrals to their peers through community-based activities. Our evidence-based training curriculum uses an educational strategy that addresses gender and power in intimate relationships, with a focus on pregnancy prevention for adolescents.

VOLUNTEER PROMOTER NETWORK
One of WINGS’ longest-standing programs is our network of more than 30 Volunteer Health Promoters: community leaders identified within underserved rural areas to be a local point of service. Through their intimate linguistic and cultural knowledge of the communities they serve, they are able to provide quality contraceptive counseling, low-cost short-acting methods, and referrals to WINGS medical clinics for additional services.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CLINICS
Our three mobile units which reach rural communities, as well as our stationary clinic in Antigua, provide long-acting reversible contraception, short-acting contraceptives, and rapid cervical cancer screening/treatment. We offer copper IUDs which provide up to 10 years of protection from unintended pregnancies and subdermal hormonal implants which provide 5 years of protection. We use visual inspection with acetic acid for immediate detection of cervical cell abnormalities and same-day treatment using cryotherapy for pre-cancerous cells that may lead to cervical cancer.

MOBILE SURGICAL CLINICS
Affordable, quality tubal ligations and vasectomies are performed by our Medical Director and contracted physicians at partner hospitals in Alta Verapaz, Chimaltenango, Escuintla, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, Quiché, Retalhuleu, Sacatepéquez, San Marcos, Santa Rosa, Sololá, Suchitepéquez, and Totonicapán. Pre and post-procedure care as well as follow-up in the days after is provided by our nurses.

These are the results WINGS has achieved since its creation in 2001: *

- 347,433 women, men, & youth educated and counseled on contraception
- 335,544 unintended pregnancies prevented *
- 1,855 child & 116 maternal deaths prevented *

* Estimated using the Marie Stopes International Impact 2 model