Letters to the Editor

Rotary Club of Gig Harbor Midday contributes to groundbreaking Etta Projects program in Bolivia

Rotary Club of Gig Harbor Midday has been a consistent and ongoing supporter of Etta Projects, an organization founded and led by Pennye Nixon that provides a variety of much-needed services to rural villages in Bolivia. Pennye is now an honorary member of our Midday Club. In 2024, we are co-sponsoring a global grant with South Kitsap Rotary Club and Montero Rotary Club in Bolivia that is especially innovative as well as much needed by the rural inhabitants in Bolivia.

This unique project focused on sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal and adolescent care, is offering workshops at the high schools to provide accurate information on sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, and how to prevent them. This grant also supports clinic fairs focused on contraceptives and pap exams.

The clinic offers adolescents contraceptives in the form of injections and oral contraceptives as well as IUDs. The project plans to provide 1,000 implants of subdermal contraceptives. A campaign has been launched called “Her Choice, Her Future: Help Girls Choose Their Own Path” to raise $10,000 to cover the cost of the implants.

Women in Bolivia line up at a contraceptive clinic. Photo by Dino Maccari.

Our Rotary Club is proud to be a co-sponsor of this grant providing much-needed services to Bolivian teenagers. The project is led by Etta Projects physician, Dr. Caterine Senzano, one of the few doctors in the region accredited to teach other health personnel on these topics.  She recently led a training session for personnel responsible in the 5 municipalities for sexual and reproductive health and maternal and adolescent care. Rotary Club Montero also attended and participated in the presentation to over 150 health staff.  Dr. Caterine Senzano visited the U.S. in June and came to our Midday Club to present on this grant and what is being accomplished.

Etta Projects in-country Program Director, Veronica Pellizzari, says that she already sees the huge impact of this project. “Even though there is a law protecting adolescents’ sexual and reproductive rights, there has never been a training program on what actually the law says. Now this is guaranteed to put it into practice and make it a reality.”

Another component of the project is empowering girls through a mentorship program led by an Etta Projects psychologist. The first stage involved meeting with school personnel and parents and obtaining permission to implement this component. The first empowerment group involves 40 girls, and the impact is said to be “incredible.”

The Etta Projects psychologist, Carla Wills, says, “These girls are given, for the first time in their lives, the space and opportunity to talk about what’s going on and what worries them…Now they know they can come to ask for help.”  Carla noted, “I have seen their change since the beginning of the project, as they were shy and almost silent during the first session.”  This first group is intended to be peer mentors.

Young women in Bolivia at a Girls Empowerment conference. Photo by Dino Maccari

A total of 11 Rotary Clubs in the U.S. are supporting this project across three districts. In District 5020, six clubs are involved, including not only the clubs in South Kitsap and Gig Harbor but also Poulsbo-North Kitsap, Tacoma, Kingston, and Port Orchard.  The Rotary Club in Montero, Bolivia, is actively involved in the project, helping set up the first big training for health personnel and staying in constant communication with Etta Project’s Montero-based team.

One Rotarian, a physician, helped Etta Projects get to a reliable provider of contraceptives and her help has been invaluable, according to the project leaders.  Rotary Club Montero is responsible for overseeing the project’s budget and expenditures.

Pennye will be leading a group of US Rotarians to Bolivia to see this and other Rotary-sponsored projects first-hand.

Luellen Lucid

Rotary Club of Gig Harbor Midday

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