If only the answer was that simple...

I’ve recently started reading a book called “In the land of God and Man” written by Silvana Paternostro woman that was born into a high class Latin America family but later moved to the states and become a journalist. In reading her words I have begun to become more aware of the culture around me and am beginning to understand what I see more and more.

Through a thread on FaceBook a conversation has come up around the issue of birth control and thoughts on solutions. In this entry I’m going to try and address some of the things that I have witnessed being here in Central America and quote some of the disturbing and shocking entries in the book that I mentioned above.

If only the answer was as simple as handing out condoms and addressing education issues with the women. As I have begun to discover the issues go much deeper then that…There are several factors that must be taken into account. Religion, many people here are Catholics and it is against their beliefs to use birth control. Another is availability when it comes to reaching the smaller towns and villages. And yet another obstacle is the culture itself along with suppression. The roles that men and women play here are very old fashioned by many western standards. Living with Maritza I witnessed this first hand. Even as a doctor she is still the woman of the house and is responsible for the meals, cleaning and child care (with the help of the two other women which most families would not be able to afford.) In the book Silvana Paternostro talks about the women’s reluctance to bring up the use of condoms with their partners. Many women believe that it is not their place to bring such things up and see sex as part of their duty in the marriage. As I become more fluent in Spanish I hope to be able to begin talking with the women first hand.

Here are some of the shocking entries found in the book, In the land of God and Man:

“In Argentina, last year, a cook as accused of systematically raping his eleven-year old stepdaughter every time the girl’s mother-his wife-left for work was immediately released from prison when he announced he would marry the girl. Under Article 132 of the Penal Code, his ten year sentence would be repealed if the marriage took place: ‘In the case of violation, rape, kidnap or dishonest abuse of a single woman, the delinquent who will marry the offended will be exempt of his sentence, if she consents after she is restituted in her parents’ home or to another safe place’. The girl, who was pregnant, accepted the offer-with her mother’s consent-to marry her mother’s husband, her rapist, so that the newborn would have un papa.


In Peru the penal code states that ‘a women who causes an abortion, or consciously allows someone else to practice one, will punished with no then two years of her liberty or with community service of 104 days.’ In Colombia she can get up to four years in prison. But scarier than the legal punishment was the list of methods used to have them: knitting needles, clothes hooks, spoons, umbrella rods inserted into the vagina. Women of all ages take a wide range of pharmaceuticals and folk medicines. The list ranges from effective and dangerous to ridiculous and dangerous: high doses of estrogen; laxatives; marijuana mixed with oak and avocado or parsley and coriander. They veterinary prostaglandins or inject muscle relaxants, swallow bleach or cheap hair dye or laundry blueing mixed with urine. They will use anything they can afford or get their hands on to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Many dance and drink for days. Some pray. Others make themselves fall intentionally from roofs, staircases, trees. The last item on the list sent a chill down my spine: Voluntary blows by the husband in the stomach.”

Anna, Maritza, Dr. Carla and some other women are working on getting a program started here in Copan. It’s called:

Life To Life
Vida a la Vida
Addressing family health and education in the Copan region


Mission

To provide comprehensive, affordable, and sensitive health care to reduce infant and maternal mortality, and improve the quality of reproductive health care and education available to women and their families in the Copan region.


To support and improve training of rural midwives to improve their skills and enhance their role as outreach workers and community educators in remote Maya Chortí villages, thereby enabling partnerships between midwives and health centers and the communities they serve.


To provide dynamic and gender sensitive youth education on the topics of self-esteem, sexuality and HIV/AIDS, and to provide prevention programs, testing, treatment and counseling for HIV/AIDS in the region.


Here are some of the stats that they have gathered on women here in the area of Copan Ruinas.

THE MAYA CHORTI OF COPAN
The highest concentration of rural poverty in Honduras is found in the western region of Honduras, including the department of Copan, which also has the greatest concentration of extreme poverty, with an estimated 71 per cent of indigenous peoples living below the poverty line. There are over 220 Mayan villages in the Copan region, encompassing Copan Ruinas, Santa Rita and Cabanas, with a population of over 70,000 indigenous people.

Copan has some of the highest infant and child mortality rates in the country, high teen pregnancy rates and an untreated AIDS population. The indigenous Maya Chorti population is especially marginalized, live in remote areas and are under -serviced in every way, especially in access to education and health care.

The average indigenous Maya Chorti woman living in the mountains has between 7 to 10 children, and children are literally dying of malnutrition, starvation and diarrhea. Maternal and infant mortality rates for the remote Maya Chorti villages are among the highest in the country, with the majority of women in rural areas giving birth alone or with the aid of a midwife who has little to no formal training or sterile equipment. Many infant births and deaths go unreported, but the scant reporting that takes place indicates that mortality rates are high. There are very few health services available in the remote mountainous areas of the region, as many are only accessible by foot, and not at all in times of heavy rain. Because of little to no health education services in the remote Maya Chorti villages, there is generally very little knowledge or access to contraception and family planning methods. It is not unusual to find 12 year olds giving birth, and the doctors in Copan Ruinas have seen 19 year old women with three to five children.