Navy and civilian medical professionals embarked aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) hosted a "Women's Health Day" seminar at a local Latter-day Saints (LDS) church June 23 during the humanitarian-civil assistance mission Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15).

Non-government organization (NGO) volunteers from Latter-day Saints Charities (LDSC) worked alongside military medical providers to promote health, nutrition and mental well-being to host nation health care workers and community members.

Cmdr. Erlina Naval, a nurse practitioner assigned to the Women's Health Clinic at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP), Virgina, explained that training on "universal women's issues" was suggested during the pre-deployment site survey to Guatemala in October 2014.

"Staff from the LDS church in Guatemala attended the seminar and found it very valuable, and they requested that similar conferences be held in additional countries during CP-15. One of the church Elders has helped organize this by working with Comfort's training officer," said Naval.

Naval said the first seminar in Guatemala, CP-15's second mission stop, was highly successful, with more than 100 attendees participating. Since then, seminars have been held in Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador, with an additional seminar scheduled for the CP-15 mission stop in Honduras.

"Many of the attendees have expressed gratitude and appreciation for the conference both verbally and in surveys," said Naval. "After each topic, many in the audience engage with us by asking questions and sharing experiences from their countries. Initially, many attendees had requested that we add additional topics on self-confidence, self-esteem and women's empowerment to the agenda."

Listening to the audience's input, Lt. Cmdr. Mary Rhodes, a psychiatrist assigned to NMCP, developed a presentation on self-esteem for the El Salvador seminar.

"My hope is that the discussion on self-esteem will encourage host nation women to use adaptive coping skills and gain confidence in themselves," she said. "The presentation is designed to help the women identify their strengths so that they feel empowered to make changes in their life that they identify as important."

The Women's Health Day also focused on topics such as sexual assault, nutrition, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and health issues specific to women. The facilitators stressed that positive changes in lifestyle and behavior can result in better health, enhanced quality of life and improved readiness.

"When we provide this conference to host nation health care staff and members of the community, we not only strengthen partnerships, but we are also assisting in empowering women with knowledge about their health," said Naval.

CP-15 is a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet-conducted deployment to conduct civil-military operations including humanitarian-civil assistance, subject matter expert exchanges, medical, dental, veterinary and engineering support and disaster response to partner nations and to show U.S. support and commitment to Central and South America and the Caribbean.

For more news from Continuing Promise, visit www.navy.mil/.