A new mother and child health care program will begin in fall 2000 in the municipality of El Alto, in the department of La Paz. Population pressure in the area is tremendous. The growth rate is higher than in any other Andean city. The result is a permanent social emergency. People suffer from cultural and economic exclusion.
Urban planning is nonexistent, and health and education infrastructure is inadequate.
The MSF program emphasizes mother and child health care, sexual and reproductive health and counseling for victims of violence. MSF also plans to create a woman's clinic to help reduce maternal morbidity-mortality rates. MSF has been working in Bolivia since 1986.