Field Placement: Centro Las Libres de Información en Salud Sexual, Región Centro, A.C.
Location: Guanajuato, Mexico
Preceptor:
Student Name: Gabriela Vieyra
Year: 2008
Centro Las Libres de Información en Salud Sexual, Región Centro, A.C. is a non-governmental organization (NGO) whose mission is “to advance and defend the sexual and reproductive rights of women and youth in Guanajuato, Mexico.” This has been accomplished by empowering women and youth in disadvantaged rural and urban communities through ongoing training workshops and education; by engaging young leaders in the promotion of their sexual and reproductive rights; by providing comprehensive legal and psychological counseling for victims of sexual violence and rape; by advocating for and defending the rights of victims of sexual violence and rape, particularly access to legal abortion; and promoting a social and political atmosphere of human rights and equality
Established in 2000 in one of the most conservative states in the country, Centro Las Libres has worked arduously to eradicate the institutionalized discrimination at the state, community and family levels where women and youth within marginalized sectors endure a repressive social and cultural environment with respect to their sexual and reproductive rights.
During the last decade, youth in the state of Guanajuato has been subjected to authoritarian policies that directly violate their sexual and reproductive rights. The current Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) government of Guanajuato, for example, has banned federally approved sex education texts to be used in public schools. The PAN runs on a conservative platform especially in regards to sexual issues and is unofficially supported by the Roman Catholic Church.
Although not officially banned, within the public school curriculum, formal sex education is at a bare minimum and teachers receive little or no training or support from administrators for its implementation. A large number of teachers actually perceive the subject as optional since they are not familiar or comfortable with the topic. In addition, the availability and dissemination on sexual and reproductive health information is extremely limited. As a result, the lives of Guanajuato’s youth have been severely impacted.
Guanajuato, for example, has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the nation, being ranked among Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero (Mexico’s three poorest states) for the low use of birth control. According to the National Population Council, 40 % of women of reproductive age in the state do not use birth control, representing the fourth lowest rate of birth control usage in the country.
During my 10-week internship at Centro Las Libres, my work mainly consisted of conducting a comprehensive literature review and the search of hospitals records near Guanajuato City with the purpose of documenting evidence on the incidence of unwanted pregnancies, STD’s and HIV/AIDS among the adolescent community in the state. Findings from this search will be included in a research project that Centro Las Libres is co-conducting with the National Pedagogic University that will provide evidence to the state congress that these repressive policies are negatively impacting the lives of thousands of adolescent in the state. The organization’s ultimate goal is to pressure the government to adopt a comprehensive sexual education curriculum in secondary schools.
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