The hygiene and sanitation program is often the first to be implemented in a community, establishing the foundations for future workshops on more advanced subjects. Personal cleanliness and the care of the body are addressed, as well as general life abilities and capacities for decision making. The participants who are mainly women, obtain further knowledge about personal health and a firmer sense of their right to take control of their health and life decisions.

Between 1999 and 2002, the program “Yo quiero, yo puedo … cuidar mi salud y ejercer mis derechos” (I want to, I can … care for my health and exercise my rights), provided hygiene and sanitation information and abilities to over 39,000 girls and women inhabiting the rural area of la Mixteca in Oaxaca, one of the less developed regions of the country. Working with hundreds of community promoters, rural health assistants and local volunteers, IMIFAP offered hygiene and psychosocial abilities workshops, divulging fundamental health information and training in communities lacking adequate health services and promoting changes in hygiene and sanitation behaviors. A follow-up study 18 months later, demonstrated that changes assumed by women and girls as a result of the program were maintained.