By Marissa Doiron | Executive Director, Project Hearts
Today is my favorite day of the year – graduation day* for our newest Community Health Leaders!
Eight women between the ages of 19-64 will be celebrating their successful completion of our 6-month course. They represent 6 different communities, including 2 who will be the first CHLs in their area – we love that we’re expanding our reach!
This cohort also boasted our first ever pregnant participant, who despite being at the end of her final term was always very punctual, had great attendance, and learned a lot that will help her as a new mom. In December 2023 she gave birth, and then we welcomed our youngest ever participant to in-person classes. :)
All of Project Hearts’ educational programs seek to prevent problems, so people don’t have to suffer the high costs of fixing issues, whether they are physical, emotional, financial, emotional, or relational.
Historically, women in our rural area have been expected to be submissive and subservient to all men, constrained to the confines of their homes to cook, clean, raise kids, and please. Thankfully this cultural norm is beginning to wane, due in large part to women empowering and educating themselves.
Our CHL Program Coordinate (and graduate of the first cohort!), Juana, has worked with all 88 of our leaders, and she says that the women who participate are already strong before enrolling in the course, but they need a little nudge and encouragement to recognize the leadership skills they already possess.
By helping our students become confident in themselves, we hope to prevent the future mistreatment of women in Baitoa, so no one has to recover from the trauma and hurt of an abusive relationship.
We are immensely grateful to all of you for your continued support of Project Hearts and the Community Health Leadership Program. If our finances allow, we plan to start the next cohort in June or July – we hope to enroll at least 12 women so we can reach our goal of having 100 CHLs by the end of 2024!
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*We don’t yet have pictures to share of graduation because we needed to send this report prior to the event, but we’ll post some on our social media accounts if you’d like to check them out.
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