{"id":4932,"date":"2024-10-25T14:19:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T18:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fosfeminista.org\/news-and-stories\/transforming-generations-community-health-promoters-in-the-dominican-republic\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T00:06:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T04:06:59","slug":"transforming-generations-community-health-promoters-in-the-dominican-republic","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/fosfeminista.org\/fr\/news-and-stories\/transforming-generations-community-health-promoters-in-the-dominican-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformer les g\u00e9n\u00e9rations : Les promoteurs de la sant\u00e9 communautaire en R\u00e9publique dominicaine"},"template":"","class_list":["post-4932","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_type-stories","article_format-stories-of-change","issue_tax-contraception-reproductive-rights-and-gender-equality","issue_tax-sex-ed","issue_tax-breaking-the-cycle-of-sexual-and-gender-based-violence","issue_legacy-comprehensive-sexuality-education","issue_legacy-contraception","issue_legacy-gender-based-violence","location-dominican-republic","location-latin-america-and-the-caribbean"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"article_type":21,"article_format":150,"authors":"","add_button":false,"button_type":"link","button":"","download":"","download_button_text":"","featured_image":3223},"sidebar":{"issues":{"title":"Questions prioritaires","issues":[35,36,89]},"locations":{"title":"Localisation","locations":[95,91]},"partners":{"title":"Partenaires","partners":""}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_hero_article","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_hero_article":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Leona Adolfo has been a community health promoter in the Mata Mam\u00f3n batey, an area near the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo, for 45 years now. Born and raised in a batey, Leona knew very well how hard it was to get access to medical care in communities like hers. Contraceptives, for example, were expensive and hard to find, and many women had to hide from their partners who felt threatened by their <strong>desire to decide if, when, and how many children they wanted to have. <\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Her experiences in the batey led Leona to volunteer with F\u00f2s Feminista\u2019s partner Profamilia in 1979, facilitating <strong>access to sexual and reproductive health information<\/strong> in her community. Witnessing the impact of her work as a health promoter, Leona went on to study nursing, and she has continued to collaborate with Profamilia ever since.<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5774\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"]<img class=\"size-large wp-image-5774\" src=\"https:\/\/fosfeminista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mobile-health-unit--1024x521.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stands in front of mobile health unit. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"521\" \/> Profamilia\u2019s mobile health unit ensures that essential sexual and reproductive health services reach remote and marginalized areas.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Like Leona, around <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hir.harvard.edu\/the-united-states-haiti-and-racism-in-dominican-bateyes\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">half a million people currently live in bateyes<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> -- rural communities of Haitian immigrants or people of Haitian descent that were originally established around sugar mills. The decline of sugar production and the widespread oppression of Haitian people in the Dominican Republic have further marginalized bateyes, where many residents are undocumented and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC7679047\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">face multiple barriers in accessing basic needs like education and medical care.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">As a leading gender equity and sexual and reproductive health organization in the country, Profamilia\u2019s work in the bateyes is multipronged. Besides supporting the training of community health promoters that include young people engaged in peer education, Profamilia operates <strong>a mobile health unit<\/strong> that provides outpatient SRH services and information. To ensure that there is no financial barrier to access in-clinic care, Profamilia offers batey women and girls free-of-charge services.<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5775\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]<img class=\"wp-image-5775 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/fosfeminista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Woman-having-her-blood-pressure-measured-at-Profamilia-mobile-health-unit-1024x530.jpg\" alt=\"A woman has her blood pressure measured at a Profamilia mobile health unit.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"530\" \/> A woman has her blood pressure measured at a Profamilia mobile health unit.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">For almost a decade now, Leona has been working in Profamilia\u2019s mobile health unit, traveling from batey to batey to administer <strong>pap smears, contraceptive methods, and other types of sexual and reproductive healthcare services<\/strong>. Community health promoters play an important role in guaranteeing humane and confidential treatment for all, often in Haitian Creole. Leona learned to speak Creole as a child with her father, who immigrated from Haiti to the Dominican Republic in the 1940\u2019s and with whom she also learned to care for others. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cIf you are able to help others, you should help them, expecting nothing in return,\u2019 she says.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Leona wants to leave a legacy as <strong>\u201ca fighter who fought for my batey communities.\u201d<\/strong> She already has. The work of community health promoters in the bateyes is intergenerational, and the more women and young people are engaged, the more the community changes. That has been the experience of 24-year-old Laureni Sierra Tejeda, who participated in Profamilia\u2019s youth capacity-building sessions. After she and others acted upon the SHRHJ skills they learned with Profamilia, Laureni noticed fewer adolescent pregnancies and infections in her community. <\/span>\r\n<blockquote><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cA community with no access to education, where people grow up to get married and have children as soon as they become teenagers, is a community that will always struggle with poverty,\u201d says Laureni. <\/span><\/blockquote>\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">She is committed to carrying on the legacy of community health promoters like Leona, and she is now building a different path for herself and her family as a Law student.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<em><strong>Watch the story:<\/strong><\/em>\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6Nqjm-VfBhs","":null,"anchor_id":""}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Transforming Generations: Community Health Promoters in the Dominican Republic - F\u00f2s Feminista<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fosfeminista.org\/fr\/news-and-stories\/transforming-generations-community-health-promoters-in-the-dominican-republic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transforming Generations: Community Health Promoters in the Dominican Republic - F\u00f2s Feminista\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leona Adolfo has been a community health promoter in the Mata Mam\u00f3n batey, an area near the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo, for 45 years now. 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