Improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights of youth from indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico: Evaluation of the community mobilization and safe spaces project, Movil.com

The population of the rural Mexican State of Oaxaca is mainly indigenous, lives in poverty, and scores poorly on human development indexes compared to other Mexican states. Young people from Oaxaca are often pressured into early marriage and youthful pregnancy, and many also experience gender-based violence (GBV).

Movil.com, is a two-year community mobilization and peer education program that trains young women from indigenous communities in Oaxaca to serve as community-based leaders in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender equality, and GBV and is modeled after the “safe spaces” approach, which has demonstrated efficacy in improving SRHR among young people elsewhere.

We evaluated Movil.com using a combination of pre-test/post-test surveys, in-depth interviews with the leaders and focus groups with peers and prominent members of the community. At baseline, 12 leaders, ages 17-25, each from a different indigenous community, and 62 community-based peers participated. After two years, nine leaders and 17 peers remained.

By the end of the Movil.com program: the leaders had broadened their views on sexuality to recognize the significance of pleasure and the personal choice to use contraception; there was a 10% increase in the number of community-based peers who could identify more than one contraceptive method; and both leaders and buddies increased their ability to discuss their SRHR, particularly in terms of freedom to decide when and with whom they had sex. However, perceptions of gender equality and GBV in the community were more difficult to affect using this approach.