A day as a contraception provider

What happens when hundreds of women depend on you for contraception?

Affordable access to reproductive healthcare was a distant dream for thousands of women across the world until MSI started providing services in their communities. Our outreach teams go to the world’s most remote areas to bring contraception and safe abortion services to the women who would otherwise have no options. We’re sharing the story of one outreach nurse who believes that all women should have voluntary access to reproductive care, no matter where they live.

Meet Rosalia Ajnota, an outreach nurse with MSI’s country program in Bolivia. We met with her to see what it is like to be the only provider of contraception to hundreds of women across Bolivia.

Rosalia starts her day by preparing materials to take to health centers outside of La Paz.

When she isn’t working at these centers, Rosalia and her team are traveling to distant communities to inform women about their options for contraception.

“If Marie Stopes did not work in remote communities, the women in these towns would not be able to access contraception,” Rosalia said.

Often times, Rosalia and her team are gone for several days, driving to remote parts of the country to make sure women who want access to contraception are able to get it.

But Rosalia’s commitment to her clients doesn’t stop when she leaves the village. She creates WhatsApp support groups for women in the communities she visits, so that they have somewhere to turn.

“We as women need to talk and share our concerns. I think that to listen is very important, and this is why I created the WhatsApp groups,” she said. “They are a space to share information and also where women don’t feel alone when they concerns about contraception.”

Rosalia cares for her clients beyond the services she delivers to them, and clients appreciate her warmth and support. In the WhatsApp groups, women can share their life experiences, their contraceptive decisions, stories about domestic abuse and other common issues they face and advice for each other.

“Bolivian women in these communities suffer a lot, and it is important to help them make decisions about their bodies and motherhood,” Rosalia said. “ I want clients to leave happy and to recommend contraception to other women.”