Mark Manley

NGO and NonProfit: Mexfam: Mexfam Mexico City

The Mexican Family Planning Foundation known as Mexfam operates four programs through out Mexico. There are two community- based programs (Rural and Urban), the Young Peoples' (Gente Joven) Program and the Medical Service Centers Program. All four programs deliver services to those men, women, young people and children most in need in marginalized urban and rural areas across the country.  

For a few short days in 2008 I accompanied Mexfam staff in and around Mexico City DF , documenting the work being done and the people they were serving, across all four programs. 

 

  • Outside the main offices of Mexfam  in Mexico City. During 2007, Mexfam provided 1,213,043 medical services, 415,217 contraception counseling sessions and  distributed 1,580,886 contraceptives. Over the course of the year 187,096 young people participated in sexual and reproductive health training sessions and workshops conducted by Mexfam across the country.
  • This young girl was delivered by pediatrician Dr. Alejandro Orojca, Mexfam Lavilla clinic physician, four years ago. She has recieved all her health care from  the Lavilla clinic since her birth. The staff at the clinic call her one of their {quote}Mexfam{quote} babies, but today she and her family are not here for her, but for her younger sister.
  • The family waits to be seen by the doctor.The Lavilla clinic is one of several Mexfam clinics that comprise the Medical Services Program . All of the clinics provide family medicine and gynecology services, as well as diagnostic and lab tests. Some of the clinics are equipped to provide surgical services as well. The medical staff includes pediatricians, dermatologists, internists, gastroentrologists and other specialists.
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  • Doctor Alejendro Orojca examines the young patient.
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  • Women read Mexfam educational materials prior to the start of a community presentation by the local health promoter in a small village outside Tepeji del Rio, about two hours' drive southeast of Mexico City.The Rural Communities Program delivers health services in marginalized rural communities such as this one. Utilizing local volunteers as trained health promoters to provide health education, intervention where appropriate, and assessment and referral, the program provides vital medical education and triage to communities that often have little or no other health care alternatives.
  • This woman is the local Mexfam community health promoter and lives in this village. Today she is conducting a presentation on family planning.Community health promoters are the ones in charge of implementing the programs. They use their first hand knowledge of the community to shape the programs to meet the local needs. Often they are the only health alternative in their community.
  • One of the program's goals is to increase male participation in Mexfam activities, and enhance the mens knowledge of sexual and reproductive health issues.  Men, like the man pictured here who declined to attend the family planning presentation, remain resistant to publicly accepting condoms from health promoters or attending educational presentations. However, the women report that often after returning from a promoter's talk, they are quizzed at length by their husbands about what they learned.
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  • A reflection of Doctor Patricia Amelio, Dermatology Specialist at the Mexfam clinic in Xola, Mexico City.
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  • Both the urban and rual community programs utilize local community volunteers trained as health promoters. Women, like these pictured here,training at the Iztapalapa clinic on how to give an intermuscular injection, come from the communities where they will serve. They are trained in  basic health services, first aid, injection procedures, taking blood pressure, keeping children’s weight and height records,  treating wounds and injuries, and assessment and referral of patients to Mexfam’s clinics and medical offices. They also  provide education in familyplanning, and distribute barrier and hormonal contraceptive methods.   Although community health promoters are mostly women, more recently some men have begun to join the programs.
  • A waiting area at the clinic in the Xola section of Mexico City.
  • An examination room at the Mexfam clinic in the Legaria section of Mexico City.
  • A couple leaving the clinic in Xola. It is a busy, tough working neighborhood typical of the neighborhoods that Mexfam's medical services program clinics are serving.
  • Mexfam programs and services are targeted to those urban and rural parts of Mexico that have been marginalized and are most in need.
  • A woman holds her child while listening to a community health promoter during a presentation on family planning. The health promoter is this woman's neighbor. Health promoters live in the communities in which they work.
  • A young girl attends a Mexfam community health promoter's presentation on family planning in a small colonia on the outskirts of Tepeji del Rio.
  • Listening to a Mexfam community health promoter discuss family planning at a small colonia outside of Tepeji del Rio.
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  • The area around Tepeji del Rio is rural farmland with few services, and is typical of the areas where Mexfam programs are operating.
  • The Gente Joven Center in San Juan Rio Mexico. The Gente Joven {quote}young people's{quote} program is Mexfam’s unique attempt to address sexual health service and information needs of young people in Mexico. Using adolescent {quote}peer{quote} health promoters, it is a national program that targets youth ages 10 to 25 from urban and rural marginalized areas across the country. In addition to doing formal presentations in schools and recreation centers, peer promoters do active outreach engaging young people in the streets, schools, sports and recreation centers, workplaces and other places where young people usually gather.Through this program, Mexfam hopes to meet Mexican youths' sexual and reproductive education needs while shaping a new youth sexual health culture that considers sexual education and information for adolescents and young people, as well as the corresponding comprehensive youth friendly services, a social obligation.
  • A sexual and reproductive health talk being given in a rural school outside of San Juan Rio, Mexico.
  • A young Gente Joven peer promoter demonstrates correct handling of a condom during a sexual and reproductive health presentation in a rural school outside of San Juan Rio, Mexico.
  • Peer promoters at the Gente Joven center in San Juan Rio.
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