Social forces and structures that prevent women from the community La Ladrillera, Mexico from accessing sexual and reproductive health care

Claudia Bejarano Zambrano, MD, MMSc '24

Claudia Bejarano Zambrano, MD headshotClaudia Bejarano Zambrano is a Mexican lawyer and physician with experience in non-formal education. Since 2004 she has participated in social projects in low-income communities. Her passion for fighting against injustice led her to study law, working in the prevention of crime and gender violence. She studied social work to elaborate intervention models with women and later attended medical school. During public hospital rotations, she recognized poverty and how the right to health reaches people. 

All study participants gave permission for their photos to be taken and shared. Caregivers gave consent for children to be photographed and for their photos to be shared. 

Anahi Strader interview 2023

Student Perspectives

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A pile of dirt and a building crudely made of bricks
A sun sets behinds the hills of La Ladrillera Mexico. Smoke comes out of a brick kiln, covering the sunset. The foreground is a pile of dirt

The photos show brick kilns around the community of La Ladrillera, a municipality of Mexicali, Mexico. “Ladrillera” means brickyard. Brickmaking is the primary economic activity in this community.

For some women, the community represents the only place they have ever known and the only place to return to. Yet their stories show that the risks they are exposed to are more than just the smoke from the brick kilns. By staying in La Ladrillera, they risk sexual and gender-based violence.

A woman in a sombrero works on a brick path
An elderly woman poses in front of a pile of bricks
Two pictures. Both show the same Hispanic woman working in the mud with a hoe

The photos show women brick workers. Women are the main actors, not only in my project, but also in their families and the community.
Most of the women report that their occupation is housewife. Only a few consider themselves brick workers, however the vast majority of them are involved in the process of making bricks.
 

Claudia interviewing one woman
Claudia interviewing another woman outside.

These photos show the study team, the participants, and me. The research team and women from the community were an essential part of the study.

The commitment shown by the research team allowed us to build trust among us and with the community. The willingness, openness, and confidence placed by the women in the research team were crucial for listening with due care and respect to those stories they longed to share.

Pregnant woman in field of weeds and flowers
Woman holding baby

These photos show strong women, mothers, and their projects. Each child represents a story in access to SRH. Some to motherhood are different from others, but even so, there is much to tell.

The stories behind each child are full of an ambivalence between the pain and the happiness of arrival. Behind each of these stories, the mothers show their desires for a different outcome in their futures or that of their daughters. Exceptional cases have reached higher education, and the panorama continues to show obstacles in access to health and their lives.

Read more about the Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery program here.