PROSALUD

Project Activities and Highlights

• In 1997, PSI entered into a collaborative agreement with PROSALUD, a dynamic Venezuelan NGO whose mission is to develop, implement and manage social commercial marketing projects that improve the reproductive health of all Venezuelans through the provision of affordable products, education, referral information, outreach and other services.

• Through an agreement with Importadora Aciprosalud C.A., PROSALUD uses social commercial marketing to market oral contraceptives and other reproductive health products. Under this agreement, PROSALUD designs education and communications campaigns to educate the population about the need for and importance of quality family planning services and to create demand for modern methods of contraception. As part of the agreement, Aciprosalud reduced significantly the price of its oral contraceptive and provides a percentage of net sales to PROSALUD.

• PROSALUD introduced a dedicated emergency contraceptive pill in 2000. In 2004, sales reached 550,000 units, representing a 68% increase over the prior year.

• PROSALUD focuses on developing and implementing adolescent reproductive health projects and includes the nationwide distribution of adolescent-focused brochures relating to contraceptive methods. PROSALUD manages the nation teenage pregnancy information line (0800-PROSALUD) that offers extensive reproductive health information. The line has received over 80,000 calls, and now incorporates male teenagers as a target population. Since April 2001, PROSALUD has been providing cost-free workshops in the high schools of Caracas and Maracaibo (Venezuela's second largest city). To date, some 1,300 workshops have been attended by over 50,000 students. In 2003, PROSALUD made a 37 minute video on reproductive health that it distributes free of cost to all high schools.

• PROSALUD held a symposium on emergency contraception as part of the Venezuelan Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics annual congress in March 2004 with specialists from the region.

• PROSALUD obtained the support of Luis Sojo, a famous Venezuelan baseball player and third-base coach of the New York Yankees, to promote the teenage pregnancy information line. Callers will be able to listen to a personal message from Mr. Sojo

• PROSALUD computerized the teenage pregnancy line to permit faster response time to questions and to the provision of medical references.

Research Findings
• In 2001, PROSALUD completed a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Study for Venezuela. The KAP has provided valuable, updated information on the state of family planning and reproductive health in Venezuela. Significant findings included: 55% of the women's youngest children had been the result of an unwanted pregnancy, up from 35% in a similar study done by PROSALUD in 1991.; 85% of adolescents did not know when they were most likely to become pregnant during their fertility cycle; and the majority of young women still rely more on their friends and parents than health specialists for information about their own reproductive health.

• In 2002, PROSALUD completed a KAP in 10 high schools in Caracas, in part to measure the effect of the workshops. Among sexually active couples, contraceptive use of modern methods increased 19% after attending the workshop.

Future Plans
• Publish a new brochure on all methods of contraception entitled "Which Method is Right for Me."

• Introduce a one pill presentation of emergency contraception which will reduce user error.

• Launch a new TV campaign to stimulate demand for contraceptive methods and calls to the teenage pregnancy line.

• Produce a brochure which contains the most frequently asked questions on the teenage pregnancy line.