2019 has arrived and preparations are well under way for what will be our largest and most ambitious event ever.
Call them resolutions, affirmations or simply our commitment to build a smarter and more powerful movement, but here is what we intend to accomplish:
Building on this exciting momentum, WVD is headquartering 2019 in Colombia, South America to launch its most ambitious event ever. WVD is proud to be partnering with Profamilia, the country’s leader in family planning and the largest provider of vasectomies in all of South America. Led by their executive director Marta Royo, Profamilia and their 28 clinics scattered throughout the country sets the standard for excellence in care, not only in Colombia, but the entire continent and beyond.
Colombia is also where the first vasectomy was performed in South America, and the first country to adopt the no-scalpel vasectomy technique. Today, the program continues to thrive under Profamilia’s lead vasectomist, Dr. Diana Torres, who is personally responsible for over 30,000 vasectomies and the training of dozens of other doctors. With such powerful regional leaders for WVD’s base, it presents a timely opportunity to specifically target the entire Western Hemisphere, in addition to other existing global and media networks.
COLOMBIA
Through Profamilia’s excellence, WVD will be poised to provide more vasectomies, create more awareness and train more doctors than ever before.
WVD’s themes of ‘responsible men’ and ‘acts of love’ will be incorporated into Colombia’s nationwide post-conflict campaign. WVD, as a storytelling program, presents positive personal narratives that unite men across ideological, racial and cultural divides. This alignment echoes with WVD’s broad goals of nurturing positive masculinity, and is a dimension we are eager to fortify in partnership with Colombia.
WVD will collaborate with “Historias en Kilómetros” (stories in kilometers), a Colombian media organization, to train over 100 young filmmakers throughout the country. Their stories will be shared both within Colombia and across Latin America.
WVD will take the first steps towards a World Vasectomy Day Center for Excellence in Male Contraception. Working hand-in-hand with our technical team and partners at No-Scalpel Vasectomy International (NSVI), and the Fonds Michel-Labrecque en santé reproductive masculine from the Fondation de l’Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada, this center will be the only training program in the world offering both service provision capacity building and awareness raising activities, coupled with clinical practice and research.
WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Expanding beyond a single day or a single country, WVD 2019 will be a hemispheric celebration with activities in North, South and Central America. Alongside the principal headquarters for 2019 in Bogota, there will be major activity hubs in Mexico City, Mexico; Port au Prince, Haiti; New York City, Tampa, Boston and Seattle, USA; Antigua, Guatemala; and Quebec City, Canada. WVD will strive to have activities in every one of the 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere.
WVD will cultivate intercultural connectivity during a year-long North – South demand generation and awareness building road trip for Positive Male Engagement. In an RV-style mobile media unit, WVD will visit as many as 12 countries, providing information through videos, signing up people for procedures and providing or supporting services, where relevant. The trip will launch from Canada and end in Bogota, Colombia for the WVD 2019 celebration.
In New York and New Jersey, WVD will launch the first Pop-Up Vasectomy Clinic, intended to take place on Valentine’s Day, March Madness Finals weekend and Father’s Day. These WVD clinics will be the first step in creating a sustainable source of funding for our global campaigns.
Working with Dr. Gianni DeCastro from Profamil in Haiti and Dr. Michel Labrecque from Quebec’s Laval University, WVD will build upon the highly successful FP2020 program in Port au Prince during 2018.
GLOBALLY
WVD will continue to support its partners around the world to engage more doctors in more countries. This includes sharing videos and exchanging knowledge.
WVD will scale its evidence-based and piloted eight-step framework for a sustainable vasectomy program by subsidizing up to four programs a year in low-resource countries with low vasectomy acceptance rates. Contingent upon finding, WVD will strive to maintain this support for up to five years in order to ensure the sustainability and quality of the programs.
WVD will partner with other major non-governmental organizations to reach new countries, launch conversations and expand service provision, including IPPF, MSI and their local affiliates.
WVD will partner with the Fonds Michel-Labrecque en santé reproductive masculine from the Fondation de l’Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada, to develop an online vasectomy theoretical and practical training course.
MEDIA
Produce viral content working with grassroots storytellers.
Develop virtual reality strategies for easing the vasectomy experience and assuaging fears and anxieties.
Develop assisted reality to be used in training vasectomy providers.
Produce an animation series to educate men about family options for women.
Create the “Sperm Ninja’ mobile-based game to raise awareness of family planning among youth.
Complete a video on the future of male contraception.
RESEARCH AND DATA
Included in WVD’s 2019 objectives is developing a series of tools for aggregating and analyzing data as follows:
Data as Evidence: design an app to distribute among our doctors to aggregate real time data, and create an IRB-approved assessment of WVD content and messaging.
Data as Storytelling: integrate the aggregation of data into demand generation and awareness building campaigns.
Data as Art: develop artistic infographics and colorful digital designs to increase the appeal and understandability of data to a broad audience.
In 2019 World Vasectomy Day is poised for exponential growth. Through dedicated efforts in Colombia, the Western Hemisphere and the world, using media and data, WVD will continue fostering responsible masculinity and uniting around this movement for positive masculinity.
