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Ashoka Fellow since 2000   |   Mexico

Delia Villalobos Arciga

Colectivo de Educación y Formación Integral para la Salud
By managing mobile medical teams that serve women in remote Mexican villages, Delia Villalobos is breaking the traditional silence that surrounds reproductive health care.
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This description of Delia Villalobos Arciga's work was prepared when Delia Villalobos Arciga was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2000.

Introduction

By managing mobile medical teams that serve women in remote Mexican villages, Delia Villalobos is breaking the traditional silence that surrounds reproductive health care.

The New Idea

Delia believes that in order to maintain good health and prevent illness, women must have a positive attitude towards themselves. In Mexico politics, religion, and tradition discourage women from asserting control over their health. Poor health is a cultural problem -- one of beliefs, values,Read more

The Problem

Women in rural Mexico suffer the twin exclusions of distance and silence. Living far from clinics and hospitals, they simply don't have consistent and reliable access to professional health care. The government can't afford to build, staff and supply clinics to serve the small client bases inRead more

The Strategy

Delia's mobile medical team addresses the problems of distance, silence, and shortsightedness. The team, which has four health promoters, one doctor, one lawyer, one social worker, one trainer and one researcher, now serves thirty villages in Michoacan and plans to expand. By bringing pap smears,Read more

The Person

In Delia's very traditional family, women were expected to do all the housework and serve the men. As a child, she considered becoming a nun because she wanted to travel. In her world, married women couldn't travel. She dreamed of becoming a journalist or psychologist, but ultimately attendedRead more

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