June 2, 2022—Women often struggle to access reproductive health care in areas of Venezuela’s Bolívar state such as Tumeremo, where the main economic activity is gold mining. People work in and around the mines for months at a time, or care for children at home while their partners work in the mines. Essential health care such as contraception is often too expensive or unavailable.
Since November 2021, a team from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been working with the José Gregorio Hernández Hospital in Tumeremo to provide family planning consultations to more than 1,000 women. Almost 90 percent of these women chose to receive some form of contraception, and more than 70 percent received a long-acting contraceptive method, such as a subdermal implant or an intrauterine device.
“There is a great need,” explains Armando, who accompanied his wife to the José Gregorio Hernández Hospital. “My wife wanted to get an intrauterine device, and when we arrived, we found almost 500 people waiting—all of them had appointments. A month later, my wife had her copper T intrauterine device implanted."
