Pro Mujer (Bolivia)
Pro Mujer was founded in 1990 in El Alto, Bolivia with the vision that, given the right opportunities, women can become powerful agents of change and realise their full potential. Pro Mujer is one of Latin America’s leading women development organisations, currently serving 250,000 women in six countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Peru.
In 2020/2021, Eurofins Foundation supported Pro Mujer in improving Health Outcomes in four low-income areas of Bolivia through the organisation’s network of community health workers (CHWs).
The funds provided by the Eurofins Foundation were key for three areas of operation: training and supervision, tech and connectivity, and volunteer safety within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Training and supervision activities are the core of the project, nearly 50% of the funds awarded to the project were spent on ensuring the successful execution of training sessions. Funding from the Eurofins Foundation contributed to the success of the project: Pro Mujer closed the year 2021 with 300 volunteers trained and ready to work.
Financial resources have been invested in providing the CHWs with the digital tools they need to adequately register each beneficiary including mobile internet connectivity which allows the follow-up app to work in the field. Lastly, due to COVID-19, additional safety and security measures were put in place to protect staff and volunteers during training and screening operations, as such funding was also dedicated to providing volunteers with sanitisation materials and antibacterial gel for constant use.
The Community Healthcare Workers programme held over 23,000 screenings and more than 13,600 counseling sessions in 2021. It also seeked to diversify and scale the impact by educating women in the region on crucial, such as Gender Based Violence prevention and family planning.
In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to ProMujer Bolivia for its project “Strengthening community health through women health promoters”.
This project built on the success of the Community Health Worker (CHW) program, which had previously been supported by the Eurofins Foundation, and expanded on the services offered by the CHWs. There are currently 278 active CHWs in Bolivia that are able to do basic screenings for obesity, blood pressure and blood sugar.
The project facilitated the addition of telemedicine kits, so that the CHWs could perform telemedicine services in two of the most affected and underserved areas of Bolivia, El Alto and San Ignacio del velasco, to identify and diagnose medical issues such as diabetes, hypertension, gastritis, myalgia, arthritis and more.
These telemedicine kits facilitated the collection of data and analysis shared with a medical professional, who could advise patients in real time and suggest specialist support when necessary. The project reached 338 patients, of which 79% said they never would have considered telemedicine as a solution to the lack of access to healthcare. This project has supported Pro Mujer's commitment to providing underserved women and their families with quality healthcare and early diagnosis of non-communicable diseases.
This project contributes to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
