New tool aims to improve access to sexual health care across Indigenous communities in B.C.

UBC students Piper Scott-Fiddler and Samantha Sage Martin-Ferris hold up their award from the Western University's World's Challenge Challenge for the Lifegiver Box—a program geared towards the sexual wellbeing of Indigenous women. (UBC)

A pair of university students in British Columbia have come up with a prize-winning solution to address unique health care challenges facing Indigenous communities.

Piper Scott-Fiddler and Samantha Sage Martin-Ferris are the brains behind the Lifegiver Box—a program geared towards the sexual wellbeing of Indigenous women—which recently won first place at Western University’s World’s Challenge Challenge.

 

 

 

 

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Scott-Fiddler and Martin-Ferris are both earning their master’s degrees through UBC’s faculty of women+ and children’s health sciences, and were recently interviewed by their university about the $30,000-award-winning project.

“As Indigenous women, this is a greatly important project to us as it is a means of giving back to Indigenous communities by reducing systemic harm against Indigenous bodies,” Martin-Ferris said in a UBC release issued Tuesday.

She says the box was developed as an answer to the 2022 report The Scars We Carry, in which the Senate Committee on Human Rights acknowledged the forcible sterilization of Indigenous woman in Canada.

“Colonization and the systemic mistreatment of Indigenous people often results in them facing stigma when accessing health care, making them hesitant to use these services,” Scott-Fiddler explained.

“We are hopeful that the production of this collaborative box and open discussions about sexual health will help to re-establish trust and foster a more promising future.”

The duo worked with the First Nations Health Authority and elders to determine what would be contained in the boxes, based on the specific needs of different Indigenous communities.

Each box will include basic sexual health products that don’t require a doctor’s prescription—like condoms, tampons and pregnancy tests—plus traditional Indigenous medicines and educational pamphlets.

Over the next five years, Scott-Fiddler and Martin-Ferris are looking to establishing 26 different locations across B.C. where Indigenous people can access the Lifegiver Box.

The $30,000 prize money will help support that goal, but the pair also plans to apply for federal funding to improve access to their program.

They’re seeking input from Indigenous people on what to include in the box.

“We also ask that non-Indigenous health-care providers are supportive of Indigenous people’s access to health care and work to decolonize their spaces and practices for Indigenous people,” said Martin-Ferris.