The Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) is making reproductive healthcare more accessible to communities across all regions of Guyana, including remote indigenous communities, through a growing network of strategic partnerships and mobile outreach efforts.
Director of GRPA, Kobe Smith, said the organisation has been able to extend its reach beyond its Georgetown base through mobile outreaches targeting far-flung communities — an effort made possible in large part through the support of the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI), backed by ExxonMobil.
“We’ve been fortunate to have the support of the Greater Guyana Initiative through ExxonMobil to go into indigenous communities, because we recognise that we are based in Georgetown and there is a challenge related to transportation and having a permanent fixture in areas like the Rupununi,” Smith said.
In 2025, the GGI played a key role in providing access to free HPV testing, pap smears, and Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) screenings for women living in Regions 1, 4, 7, 8, and 9. GRPA has also been working alongside the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for years to push services further into hinterland communities where access to healthcare remains a persistent challenge.
Smith highlighted that indigenous women bear a disproportionate burden when it comes to unmet sexual and reproductive health needs, including reproductive cancers — making outreach to those communities especially critical.
“Indigenous women in particular are disproportionately affected by the unmet needs related to sexual reproductive health including reproductive cancer,” he said.
To date, GRPA has conducted approximately 2,000 cancer screenings, though disparities remain — particularly among men. Regional data from the Pan American Health Organization from 2021 further underscores the scale of the challenge, showing that only one in three women in the region are screened for reproductive cancers.
Smith credited GGI’s support as essential in overcoming the logistical barriers — including transportation costs and the absence of permanent healthcare facilities in remote regions — that have historically limited GRPA’s ability to serve those communities.
The collaboration reflects a broader multi-stakeholder approach to healthcare that aligns with national efforts led by the Ministry of Health to improve screening access and reduce the burden of reproductive cancers among vulnerable populations across Guyana.
