Women's Reproductive Rights Program (WRRP)
Women’s Reproductive Rights Program (WRRP) aims to bring the problem of uterine prolapse (UP) to the attention of policy makers, government, health agencies, donors, the civil society and the public in general to address it as a public health issue of the country. Under the Centre for Agro-ecology and Development (CAED), and NGO, it also helps acquire or enhance knowledge and skills both in preventive and curative measures to handle this at local levels. WRRP is the consolidation of CAED's involvement in UP since it encountered the severity of prolapsed uterus amongst women in the district of Achham while working in its agro-ecological programs way back in 1997. It takes UP as a consequence of uneven gender relations rooted in prevalent patriarchal social structure.
WRRP works in partnership with 14 local NGOs, in 65 Village Development Committees in 7 districts in the Mid and Western regions including Karnali, and in Eastern Terai region building capacity of district based NGOs, campaigners and government health workers on advocacy, prevention and treatment of it to a limited extent. In the process of expansion brand new version of WRRP is currently based in Sarlahi and Khotang districts. It reframed its program WRRP in the west to WoGCRP (Women, Girls and Child Rights Program) focusing to girl children, working through schools, families, community, child clubs, girls and women’s groups, concerned stakeholders at all levels and engaging men throughout its program to bring transformation in the society as a whole.
Activism
The WRRP has been effective in organizing the voices of women suffering from UP. Women are organized and have formed 7 networks representing from wards to VDCs to district level. They have organized number of rallies, mass gatherings, workshops, policy dialogues and interactions lobbying and advocating for the issue of uterine prolapse with concerned stakeholders. The WRRP together with district based NGOs have been successful to convince of the gravity of the issue to VDCs, DDCs, the Parliamentarians and government officials. They have helped to allocate resources to undertake the activities regarding uterine prolapse such as the purchase of ring pessaries, training government health workers.
Capacity Building
As a part of capacity building to NGOs it collaborates with local NGOs, with training, coaching and joint actions. WRRPhas provided trainings and orientations to some 175 government health workers, 125 female reproductive health campaigners and 220 UP-sufferers from 7 districts. NGOs organize events in their working areas. The government health workers were trained both on preventive and curative aspects of UP focusing on the reproductive rights of women and gender issues. The UP campaigners were mainly trained on the preventive aspects including counseling focusing on women's reproductive rights and gender issues.
Prevention
With partnership of 14 district based NGOs, the organization has also been active in prevention and awareness raising, using methods such as street drama, group discussion, orientations and door-to-door visits to educate men, couples, health volunteers and traditional birth attendants and women of all ages about the condition. Girls empowerment program sensitizes adolescents (school going and out of school) on the issues of sexual and reproductive health rights and empower them, through life skill training, peer education, ASRH education in schools, formation and mobilization of adolescent group and community outreach through peer educators for ending child marriage and adolescent pregnancy while helping them increase their access, retention and learning outcomes in schools.
Curative
WRRP has supported more than 1,000 women for surgery treatment (hysterectomy) of uterine prolapse and 1,200 women with second degree uterine prolapse were supported to insert ring pessaries. WRRD-CAED has established a hysterectomy fund, named as Maya (love) Fund raising funds through fund raising activities and collecting contribution from individuals, groups and donor organizations. It has been decentralized now to the district level in collaboration with District Reproductive Health Coordination Committee under District Health Office. These funds are used for the women who cannot afford to have corrective surgery.
Long-term vision
The WRRP-CAED emphasizes that UP is a major public health issue in Nepal, and the organization pressurize the government of Nepal to become more engaged in promoting awareness about and treatment availability for the condition on a country-wide basis. Ultimately the WRRP-CAED would like to see UP included in the National Reproductive Health Strategy, addressing it through multi-sector partners such as providing education in schools and out of schools from adolescent age, providing quality preventive and curative services, including it in relevant curriculum of relevant health courses and professional training on a country-wide scale. With the Uterine Prolapse Alliance, the WRRP-CAED seeks to improve government accountability through an international campaign that will place pressure on government and donor agencies to address the UP issues.