THE MARY BLOOM CENTER IN PERU

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Want to be a Mary Bloom Center Volunteer?

The Mary Bloom Center is primarily educational. Following is a partial list of the activities and services of the Center:

* Introductory courses in Natural Family Planning for health professionals, married and engaged couples.

* Formation courses for NFP Instructors (these courses are held twice a year and last four months).

* Formation courses for NFP Promoters.

* Classes on (chastity based) Sexual Education for High School students.

* Classes for couples, youth groups, mothers惡lubs and other organizations.

* Bibliographical material on NFP and related topics.

The following professional services are provided: Instruction for individuals and couples on NFP. Pregnancy testing and counseling. Pap test for cervical cancer. Family counseling. Pre-natal counseling. Breast-feeding counseling. Emergency and young married couplefirst-aid attention. Medical referrals, etc.

The limited medical services (e.g. pregancy testing) are offered mainly as an opening for promoting the pro-life, pro-family values of the Center.

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Volunteer(s) who share this philosophy would be a great help. A single person would be OK, a married couple better and a family best. I say that because a family like Denis & Liane愀 can model the values the Center is trying to promote.

As a help for someone who would be interested in coming, we have prepared the following the questionnaire.

1. What does family planning mean to you?

2. What methods of contraception or NFP are you familiar with? (DeProvera, IUD, Norplant, Pill, spermicides, condom, diaphram, sympto-thermic, serena, Billings, rhythm, breast-feeding, etc.)

3. What method have you chosen for your family? Why?

4. Do you have any experience with: breastfeeding? sex education programs? marriage encounter? engaged encounter? a moms and tots program? other family programs?

If yes, tell about your experience?

Answers to the above questions would be important for discerning the suitability of a candidate for service in this Center.

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As a help for someone interested in coming down, we offer some experiences taken from real-life cases. We would ask them to reflect and indicate how they might respond to a similar case:

1. A group of high school students has been referred to the Center by their teacher. They request information on contraception. They also want free samples to use for their school project.

2. A mother of 4 children (ages 7,5,2 and 6 mos.) is looking for help. Her malnourished 5-year-old refuses to eat anything but dirt and water. Her 2-year-old is also malnourished. All her children are sick. Her husband beats her when she tried to take them to the clinic. He said "What do you want so many children for? Let one of them die now that they are sick. She's had an IUD in the past, but had it removed as it made her sick. She doesn't want to have any more children.

3. A 16-yr-old is concerned because her period is late. She wants information on contraception.

4. A 40-yr-old woman brings in a 2 week old baby. The baby has a cough. The woman tells you it is one of a set of twins & that she doesn't have enought milk for both babies. She bottle feeds this one and breastfeeds the other. With the twins she has 8 children. She wants to give you the baby.

5. A man lived six years with his common law wife and they had no children. After separating, she became pregnant by another man. He has since taken up with another woman and they are unable to conceive. They come to you for advice.

6. What method would you recommend to: a young couple? a woman approaching menopause? breastfeeding women?

We would not expect someone to have immediate answers for the above situations. They are given as examples of cases that come to the Center on a day by day basis.

For more information, please contact:

Fr. Phil Bloom,
9622-20th Ave. SW,
Seattle, WA 98106.

You may also write directly to the Mary Bloom Center:

Centro Mary Bloom,
Apartado 33,
Puno, PERU.