Theresa Bailey was awarded an AllPeopleBeHappy Fellows Program grant in November of 2016. She is working with Comunidad Connect (CC) on a project entitled “Addressing Sexual and Reproductive Health in Marginalized, Rural Communities in Northern Nicaragua.”
This a pilot project to address sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues in two rural communities, Los Robles and San Esteban. Health indicators in this region reveal high rates of teenage pregnancy, cervical cancer and intra-familial violence. This SRH project is working to: expand the scope of CC’s preventative health services in order to holistically address women’s SRH in the clinic and throughout the community, provide adolescents with accurate, unbiased, culturally-sensitive SRH information, and facilitate discussions of SRH among men and adolescent boys that will challenge notions of masculinity and promote healthy behavior and decision-making. As an AllPeopleBeHappy Fellow, Theresa is fulfilling the crucial role of overseeing the training of health volunteers in topics of SRH, planning the possible expansion of facilities at CC’s health clinic, and execution of community discussions and preventative programming.