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Project Spotlight
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Welcome to Givewell's Project Spotlight. Each month we highlight a project for which a charity is currently seeking funds. We also provide details on how to give directly for this project.
Background Information: Marie Stopes International Australia (MSIA) is a not-for-profit organisation which supports women and their families in low-income Asian-Pacific communities with vital sexual and reproductive health. It works with local governments and partners in over ten countries to provide information, education, research, training and comprehensive family planning services. In a number of the countries that MSIA works in, without them, these services would otherwise not be available. All of the communities that MSIA works with in the Asia Pacific region have high, to very high, numbers of maternal and child mortalities. For example, one of Australia’s closest neighbours, Papua New Guinea, has a maternal mortality rate that is over 115 times higher than in Australia. MSIA helps to reduce these rates by providing basic family planning advice and services to these women, such as birth spacing or the contraceptive pill - medical healthcare that is taken for granted here in Australia. Improving the reproductive health and quality of life of these women and their families, and helping them to exercise their right to have Children by Choice, Not by Chance, is at the core of MSIA’s work. MSIA is committed to saving lives through reproductive healthcare. Project Description: One project MSIA recently initiated was to help the women of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Timor-Leste has recently undergone enormous population growth. This, teamed with extreme poverty (most Timorese live on less that 0.55US cents a day), has created a number of challenges for MSIA in providing its services to the people of Timor-Leste. Since the civil conflict in 2006, Timor-Leste has slowly been re-building itself and infrastructure is minimal. Often communities are scattered, or in rural areas, living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. Reaching these people is difficult, as sometimes MSIA needs to go where cars cannot go. To ensure its services are reaching women and families in these rural regions, a ‘Midwives on Bikes’ community-based service was established. This innovative project has midwives travelling by motorbikes, or mopeds, into these vulnerable communities and IDP camps, providing much-needed education, information and contraception services. Nearly 11,000 people have been reached and benefited from this vital project so far. Can donors/grant makers give directly for this project? Yes. If so, how? All donations over $2 are tax deductible and can be made via:
Ms Claire Maloney, PR & Marketing Coordinator Ph: (03) 9658 7500 Email: info@mariestopes.org.au Web: www.mariestopes.org.au Previous Project Spotlights
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