Women tend to put low priority on their health problems thus failing to allocate time and money for seeking health care. They also tend to have less access to information than men and to be less empowered to act to protect themselves. In the context of the severe economic downturn on Bali since the October 2002 and 2005 bombs, money in household budgets for health spending is more limited than ever and health concerns even more likely to be ignored.
Women who work in the marketplace bring in a daily income of anywhere from Rp 5,000 (US .35 cents for the porters) to a profit of Rp 30,000 (US $3.50) per day for the meat sellers. A small number of higher income vendors are able to pay for their medications in full (or nearly), while the porters and other lower income women can pay just a small fraction of the actual cost, such that the program could not operate without funding grants.
Given the above background, this project has been designed as one set of intervention activities to meet the needs of vulnerable women in the general population in Bali. The overall project goals are as follows:
- To improve community knowledge and awareness in Bali of accurate and important information about reproductive health (including STDs and HIV/AIDS, cancer, safe motherhood, domestic violence, etc).
- Empowerment of women market vendors (pedagang), who play an important role in the family/community in information dissemination, to extend this role to include accurate and important information about reproductive health (including STDs and HIV/AIDS).
- To improve community reproductive health in Bali, including prevention of wider spread of STDs (including HIV/AIDS), by providing quality and affordable services, beginning especially with women market vendors, and their women clients.
This project is made possible through funding by:
