Black women’s health is not given enough attention and this group seeks to put the issue onto the agenda. The group aims to go further and provide knowledge to guarantee the welfare of participants, the development of a conscious and self-determined sexuality, the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STD).

This is the mission of the project Ára Odára: Itinerant workshops for Black Women on the topic of health, carried out by Quilombola Asantewaa - Centro de Formação para Mulheres Negras, in Salvador (BA).

Workshop by workshop, the initiative managed to raise awareness among the women regarding health care, use of condoms and periodic visits to a gynecologist. Also, the project became an important place for free distribution of condoms for the community. “A change in the relation between the woman and her body took place. They began to understand the body as something that goes very much beyond the physical and the biological”, the coordinator Ana Rita states.

And if the perception of the body changed, the self-esteem also increased, setting aside a devalued vision of black feminine identity in which health care for disease prevention was low or even non-existent. “The women talked and rethought about their bodies, their histories, their health and their black identities”, Ana Rita comments.

The process that began with the women continued under the participation and the support of all members of the far-removed districts of Salvador. “We achieved an important development for the community as a whole by producing collective reflections. Women and men helped the workshop to happen and they pledged themselves to continue to pay attention to their health”, Ana Rita summarizes.