Vamos Donde Ellos [We Go Where They Are]

Read the Essay | Go to NLM Digital Collections | Watch on YouTube | Read Transcript

DATE: 1977

LENGTH: 12 min

CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Color

DIRECTOR: Unidentified

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Airlie Productions, Murdock Head

Summary

A community-based distribution (CBD) program in rural Colombia is profiled, closely following a family planning educator and one of her contraceptive distributors. The film stresses the importance of recruiting highly-respected women as distributors and attributes program success to their competence and standing in the rural areas where they live and work. Unlike several other titles explored in this essay, Vamos expresses sympathy for the capacity of rural Colombian women to overcome adverse circumstances, taking the viewer into the home of one distributor and emphasizing her labor and capacity to cover her family’s needs, rather than her lack of resources….Read the Essay

Supplementary Materials

Stills from Vamos Donde Ellos [We Go Where They Are]

A woman discussing her medical information with a health professional in front of a small wooden house in a very rural area.

Two women speaking with one another in a rural area.

Close up of a woman preparing food with her hands.

A group of women all weaving blankets by hand.

A woman in a very rural area going over oral contraceptive options with medical provider.

Other Films Featured in the Essay “Promoting Birth Control in 1970s Colombia: Unlikely Alliances On and Off the Screen”

The City:
Implications for the Future
Two women having an exchange, one of whom is holding an infant in her arms.

Socio Dramas
[Social Dramas]
A young boy and girl standing across from and speaking with one another.

La Bandera Verde: Programa
Rural Pro Familia [The Green Flag]
A close up of a priest wearing traditional black robes.

A New Health
System: Candelaria
Two women wearing white medical uniforms, walking down the street together.

Y Mañana, ¿Qué?
[And Tomorrow, What?]
A close up of a smiling brunette child.

In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

Historical Audiovisuals

Explore a group of family planning films produced or supported by Airlie in NLM Digital Collections. This set of Spanish-language films on family planning were produced or supported by Airlie.

NLM Rare Books & Early Manuscripts Collection

The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts, 1917

Birth Control: What is it?, 1923

Fewer and Better Babies, 1915

A page from the book, "Fewer and better babies; or, The limitation of offspring by the prevention of conception: the enormous benefits of the practice to the individual, society and the race pointed out and all objections answered".

NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection

Joycelyn Elders Surgeon-General speeches collection, 1992-1994, Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 571

Sigard Adolphus Knopf Papers, Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 41. Series 3: Writings and Lectures, 1895-1939, Birth Control Articles, undated

Emery A. Johnson Papers, Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 587, Series 3: Director of the Indian Health Service (1967-1989), “The Dynamic Impact of Family Planning on the American Indian Population and Health Resource Requirements” – J.L. Sanders, undated

Louis I. Dublin Papers, Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 316, Population, Birth Control, and World Leadership, 1931-1936

NLM Prints & Photographs Collection

A poster with an illustration of a three-member family consulting with a health worker. — La planificación familiar es un derecho de todos
*National Library of Medicine #101455974*

A poster with several illustrations of several contraceptive methods, including pills, implants, IUDs, spermicides, condoms, and injectables. — Métodos temporales
*National Library of Medicine #101455901*

A poster emphasizing that a vasectomy won't alleviate the responsibility of children who are already born. — A vasectomy won’t take them away, 19–
*National Library of Medicine #101455016*

A poster encouraging family planning to avoid becoming overburdened. — Don’t be overburdened: plan your family, 19–
*National Library of Medicine #101454719*

A poster raising the question if men would be more careful about family planning if they were the ones who had to bear children. — Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?, 1976
*National Library of Medicine #101454731*

A poster encouraging a natural approach to family planning. — Whatever your plans: consider a natural approach, 19–
*National Library of Medicine #101454729*

An infographic showing numerous types of contraceptives. — [Contraceptive methods], 19–
*National Library of Medicine #101454945*

A poster emphasizing the importance of not having multiple children within fewer than three years of one another, for the sake of their health and that of their mother. — It is the law of nature: plants or children–growth is better, sturdier, with proper spacing, 1992
*National Library of Medicine #101455000*

A poster with three illustrations explaining how using contraception improves quality of life. — El uso de métodos anticonceptivos nos permite vivir mejor
*National Library of Medicine #101455031*

A poster with illustrations showing contraceptive methods, including IUD, injection, diaphragm, breast feeding, pills, vasectomy, tubal ligation, natural methods, condoms, and spermicides. — As dez maneiras de não engravidar
*National Library of Medicine #101455877*

An illustrated graphic showcasing 'family planning' comprised of many smaller words. — Family planning, 1986
*National Library of Medicine #101580528*

A poster highlighting societal and community benefits of family planning. — Family planning helps everyone, 1994
*National Library of Medicine #101451745*

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

See current information on birth control from MedlinePlus.

Clinical Trials

Exhibitions
Two-panel illustration of two Chinese families
Chinese Family Planning and Child Health Education

Circulating Now Blog

NLM History Talks

Contemporary Literature
Monographs

Broadcasting Birth Control: Mass Media and Family Planning, 2013

Journal Articles in PubMed

[The social context of the birth control debate in Colombia in the 1960s and 1970s: politics, medicine and society], 2014 [Article in Spanish]
Education as policy: the impact of education on marriage, contraception, and fertility in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, 1998
[The impact of family planning on reproductive health], 1992 [Article in Spanish]
Postpartum contraception: perspectives from clients and providers in six countries, 1991
[Knowledge and use of contraceptive methods on the Atlantic coast of Colombia], 1991 [Article in Spanish]
[Family planning as a determinant of individual and community health], 1991 [Article in Spanish]
An evaluation of Profamilia’s female sterilization program in Colombia, 1990
[Prevalence of contraceptive use in Colombia: determinants and implications], 1980 [Article in Spanish]
Contraceptive method continuation according to type of provider, 1977
Fertility and contraceptive practice: Bogota, 1964-74, 1976

External Resources

NIH Institutes and Centers

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) — Est. 1962
NICHD leads research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all.

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) — Est. 2010
NIMHD leads scientific research to improve minority health and eliminate health disparities.

Other Government Agencies

Quality Family Planning, Office of Population Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services

Family planning/contraception methods, World Health Organization

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