Women’s Empowerment
Uplifting the Women of Monte Lirio
Even though Panama is the second-richest country in Central America, it is also the second-worst in Latin America for income distribution. Even with a growing economy, the poverty rate increases, especially in rural and indigenous areas of the country. 27% of the 32% of the rural population lives in extreme poverty compared to the 4% in urban areas. That makes one in five Panamanians living in poverty. 86% of the indigenous population lives in poverty, with 90% who cannot meet their basic needs. This causes them to have, on average, 11 fewer years in life expectancy.
DTCare works in these rural areas specifically to generate long-lasting change for the community that needs it the most. We acknowledge the need to expand our current programs to better address the Monte Lirio community’s health needs and well-being. Through partners with organizations like Days for Girls, the Floating Doctors, and local clinics, we are helping to pave the way for community building and women’s empowerment.
DTCare and Days for Girls
Feminine Hygiene Aid in Central America
Days for Girls is a nonprofit that helps women and girls in underserved communities access menstrual products and education. They combat period poverty and provide hygiene packs to improve health and reduce stigma. DTCare has partnered with them to provide DfG Kits to over 600 women and girls in rural areas. Each kit includes washable pads, liners, shields, underwear, cloth, soap, and a user sheet.DTCare Drives Menstrual Health Education and Reusable Pad Distribution to Combat Period Poverty in Panama
DTCare is combatting period poverty in Panama by offering menstrual health education and providing sustainable, reusable pads to girls and women residing in Monte Lirio and nearby areas. Our outreach program involves the distribution of Days for Girls kits throughout Panama, with a particular focus on San Felix, Veraguas, Río Sereno, Paso Canoas, Monte Lirio, David, and the Panama-Costa Rican border. Indigenous communities bear the brunt of period poverty on a daily basis, but thanks to Days for Girls, DTCare can offer them the crucial menstrual supplies and resources they need to lead healthier lives.
DTCare and Days for Girls
Days for Girls (DfG) is a woman-founded nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting women’s health by providing access to menstrual products and education for girls around the world who would not otherwise have access. The organization was founded to combat period poverty, the struggle women and girls face due to the lack of access to menstrual health education and supplies, and to empower disadvantaged women and girls in some of the world’s most underserved communities. Days for Girls’ feminine hygiene packs and menstrual health education reduces the adverse health effects, suffering, and stigma women and girls face with inadequate menstrual supplies.
Days for Girls’ feminine packs equip women with the menstrual supplies and resources they need to live fuller, healthier lives. DTCare has partnered with Days for Girls to address period poverty in Central America, providing over 600 women and girls living in rural, secluded areas in and around Monte Lirio with DfG Kits. Each kit is packed in a drawstring bag and includes a washable DfG pad, absorbent liners, waterproof shields, pairs of underwear, cotton cloth, soap, and a user sheet.
Women’s Empowerment
In 2022, women in Panama were 26% less likely than men to have equal economic opportunities, a rate that is increasingly higher in rural and predominantly indigenous communities. DTCare is working to empower the women in the Monte Lirio community through training initiatives, access to specialized medical and hygiene equipment, and adult literacy classes. DTCare’s women’s empowerment programs in Monte Lirio equip women with essential skills and foster independence, giving women a chance at creating a better life for themselves, their families, and their community.
Empowering women is at the heart of DTCare's mission. Working with women trapped in abusive relationships, with little to no schooling and no means to provide for themselves and their children, stressed the urgency for action of a program that could help, better equip, and give hope to these women. DTCare’s programs offer women the opportunity to learn fundamental literacy and sowing skills. Through our empowerment programs, women learn practical skills that enable them to earn an income and build a life for themselves and their dependents.
Uplifting Women Uplifts Communities
A woman’s education and her ability to make a living are vital in combatting violence against women, poverty, gender inequality, and even mortality rates under babies. Through our women-focused programs, DTCare strives to end generational suffering and reduce poverty among women in the underserved regions where we work. More than two-thirds of the world’s close to 800 million illiterate people are women, according to UN Women. Globally, only 39% of girls living in rural communities attend secondary school, a devastating statistic given that each additional year of schooling encourages girls to marry later in life, have fewer children, and ultimately leave them less vulnerable to abuse. In Panama, another reality that works against women’s literacy rates is that once a girl falls pregnant, she is not permitted to return to school.
Women’s empowerment begins with education. Not only do educated women have increased decision-making power within their households, but a quality education opens doors to better work opportunities and greater self-reliance, which better enables women to survive abusive and violent situations. DTCare’s adult literacy classes, led by a compassionate and expert all-female team, focus on women’s education and literacy. Women in need or eager to further their education are encouraged to attend flexible classes in a safe, neutral environment where they are safe and their education matters. Fundamental literacy and math skills empower women to help themselves and those around them. Education uplifts women and can help break the cycle of poverty and violence. Alongside our adult literacy classes for women, DTCare introduced a women’s training initiative giving women the opportunity to learn beginner-intermediary level sowing skills that they can use to benefit themselves and their families, to provide a service to the community that could help women generate an income of their own which results in greater financial independence.
Food Aid for Babies and Toddlers
Baby formula and specialized baby foods are unaffordable for families struggling to make ends meet in developed countries, making baby formula inaccessible. Undernourishment in babies and toddlers can have severe effects on growth, mental development, and health.
The severity of the challenges parents and caregivers face where we work led to the expansion of DTCare’s humanitarian efforts to provide critically needed baby food aid and support. To end suffering, especially for women and children, forms part of DTCare’s core mission. “We strive to end generational suffering, especially for women and children, and to reduce poverty - to aid those impoverished of access to essential resources, aid, and opportunity.” Undernourishment in babies and toddlers can severely affect growth, mental development, and health. DTCare is working to curb hunger for children and babies in Monte Lirio and surrounding communities.
