This woman in Bolivia participates in a learning session on spacing births at least two years apart.

"Freedom from Hunger is offering a forum for women to discuss their concerns, fears and triumphs."

Davis-based Freedom From Hunger is teaming up with women in impoverished countries who never before had access to family planning information or contraceptives. Providing more than access to supplies, Freedom from Hunger is offering a forum for women to discuss their concerns, fears and triumphs.

Freedom from Hunger's local partner, CRECER (Crédito con Educación Rural), initiated a comprehensive family planning project in Bolivia in 1996. CRECER members sell low-priced contraceptives at weekly community meetings and refer women to local health clinics. With a network of 290 local distributors of family planning supplies, CRECER now reaches approximately 5,800 women.

More than two years ago, Doña Rosa joined a CRECER group in her village. A proud Quechua woman, donning traditional long braids and colorful skirt, Doña Rosa lives with her husband and six children near the Bolivian town of Cochabamba.

Her peers soon selected her to become a Community-Based Distributor (CBD). At that time, she found it very difficult to talk about family planning and reproductive health and was hesitant to take on the task. But she saw the importance of the role, and of maintaining solidarity with the group. She decided to take the risk.

Since then, CRECER staff has provided Doña Rosa with training and continuous support. She has become increasingly confident in her new role, where she counsels friends and neighbors who ask about family planning. She carries family planning supplies in her skirt pocket to sell.

Both she and her husband are proud of Doña Rosa's work making a difference in the health of the community.

For more information, contact Ellen Vor der Bruegge, via Clare Thomas at 530-758-6200, ext. 47,
cthomas@freefromhunger.org.