Project for Mapuche Women, Chile

A special program for Mapuche women has been initiated by The Center of Women's Studies in Chile. The project is concerned with investigating the conditions of women from rural and urban sectors and initiating special action programs. These include setting up special groups and organizing training in such areas as textile production and in health. These activities are aimed at reevaluating their ethnic and gender identities and creating better living conditions for the women within the context of the family and the community. The project is particularly interested in training peasant women. El Proyecto Mujeres Mapuche is based on an integral conception of health and medicine and the project uses traditional medical knowledge and herbal remedies in treatment of common sicknesses.

MobiIe Health CUnic for Immigrant Women, Canada

The Immigrant Women's Centre in Toronto, Canada has initiated a creative and novel project - a Mobile Health Unit which offers health check-ups to immigrant women. It is an independent action which could be carried out in any Latin American and Caribbean country by groups of women working in the health sector.

The Canadian project has been financed by the City of Toronto's Public Health Department.

"We are trying to demonstrate to women that information on health is not the exclusive property of doctors. We want women to have health in their own hands."

Immigrant women, factory workers, textile workers, cleaners, cafe workers tend to work long hours for low pay and then they go home to work. They just do not have time to worry about their own health. These women are considered a group at high risk, in terms of gynaecological health.

The difficulty of finding information on preventive medicine in a language they understand is acute. It's almost as difficult as finding the time to contact a regular doctor, which they do only in times of emergency. Because of the difficult timetables most of these women workers have and the distance they are from health services, it was decided to bring health care to them in the form of the Mobile Health Unit.

For more information, contact:

The Immigrant Women's Centre
348 College Street.,
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5T 1S4