Field Placement: Association for Women in Health (AMES)
Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
Preceptor: Soledad Diaz
Student Name: Roxanne Stallworth
Year: 2003

Roxanne with some children in the community	After school in Alajuelita	The River

The areas of reproductive and sexual health in Costa Rica have faced many challenges in the last five years. Due to the overwhelming presence of political, social, and religious forces, the promotion of reproductive and sexual health has been extremely difficult. As an intern with the Association for Women in Health (AMES) in San Jose, Costa Rica, I was a part of a comprehensive team of women whose main goal was to provide quality reproductive and sexual health care and education for the community surrounding AMES. The community of Alajuelita was where my focus would lie, a community in extreme poverty, lacking appropriate education in regards to reproductive and sexual health. Under the direction of my preceptor, Soledad Diaz, I helped deliver reproductive and sexual health education to the Alajuelita community, enhanced AMES evaluation tools, and designed a project to lower the incidence of adolescent pregnancy in Alajuelita. Assisting the two psychologists working with AMES in Alajuelita, I discovered the needs of this community, where domestic violence, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and prostitution thrive. Further, I was able to observe firsthand, the health risks in an area of such poverty, where the large amount of trash in the community river was among just one of these. Being one facet of the dynamic AMES team allowed me the opportunity to see the various levels of expertise needed to bring about quality public health care. The AMES team, which consisted of the director (with Masters degrees in history and anthropology), a physician (also with a master’s in public health), an obstetrician with a master’s in rural development, two psychologists, and the receptionist with a background in domestic violence, enhanced my perspective of public health, which consists of many factors aside from solely physical health. As a public health professional in AMES from October to December 2003, I was able to bring my public health skills to the forefront, incorporating a more needs assessment-focused and evaluation-centered approach to the program.

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