For the past few days, Team Afya traveled to Puerto Rico alongside a dear longtime funder and our former board chair. We visited the women’s health organizations we’ve been supplying steadily, to see their work up close, assess the impact of our supplies and to listen carefully.
What we found should concern everyone.
Federal funding for the island has been slashed, and women’s health is one of the many casualties. We walked into clinics and saw empty shelves. Dedicated healthcare providers are doing everything they can for their patients, but they have almost nothing to work with.
At one clinic, staff asked us for a better colposcopy blade. The one they have is dull and causes their patients more discomfort than necessary. Think about that: women coming in for essential cervical care, enduring pain because the right tool isn’t on the shelf.
Other clinics told us they need basic wound care supplies, gloves, oxygen tubing, cannulas, and so much more. These aren’t luxuries. They are the essential tools needed to provide safe, dignified care.
We met with the island’s only midwives’ association and listened to their stories laden with challenges. Without a simple birth kit (soap, a scalpel, a cord clamp, a sterile sheet), safe births become nearly impossible, whether at home or in the hospital. Maternal mortality is much higher on the island than it was 10 years ago. We are going backwards in time. Afya can help remedy this situation and stop the decline. Items as simple as cold packs, to bring relief to women in the hours after giving birth as well as the contents of the requested birth supply kits are available to ship immediately.
The list of needs is far longer than it should be. But here is the good news: this is exactly what Afya does and these are the supplies collected and ready to go in our warehouse..
When we provide the supplies, these remarkable organizations can redirect their limited budgets to essential elements such as staff salaries electric bills. Our supplies help to keep the doors open and the lights on because every box we send frees up dollars for the people and power that make care possible.
The women of Puerto Rico can’t wait. They need us now more than ever.
Please help us show up for them. Your gift puts gloves, birth kits, and wound care supplies into the hands of the providers who need them most.