News

Pathfinder's Emeritus Advisor Judy Kahrl and Major Gift Officer Leila Percy discuss the importance of family planning in light of the Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights' recent lobbying trip to the Maine state capital.

“So many young women today don't have an idea what struggles our generation fought to secure reproductive rights,” said Judy Kahrl of Arrowsic, the founder of GRR. "Access to family planning is incredibly important. By ensuring that women and men up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level have access to effective and affordable family planning services we can save the state money by lowering the unintended pregnancy rate."

Pathfinder's "No Joke. Choice Matters." was chosen as this year's DoGooder Funny for Good video winner. Watch Pathfinder's video and learn more about winners in the other categories.

While at the Nonprofit Technology Conference last week in Minneapolis, we were on hand to see the winners of the 2013 DoGooder Video Awards announced. Four finalists were chosen for each category and then the winners were selected by the public.

Recognizing the best in video for social good, YouTube announced the four winners of its DoGooder Video Awards Friday. The categories celebrate videos that tap into the power of the social web to garner support for good causes.

What Mason found most remarkable about this year's winners is how well they all understand YouTube as a social platform.

"The videos are social, shareable, informative, entertaining and surprising. Multiple finalists collaborated with YouTube channels and creators to reach an even wider audience. Finally, the winners had a clear call to action outlining how to make a difference," she said.

Pathfinder International joined Girls Not Brides and Women Deliver today for a Twitter chat about girls and women as catalysts for change. In case you missed it, we've rounded up some of our favorite takeaways from the event.

Girls and women are catalysts for change (#girls4change). When girls and women are educated, healthy, and empowered, they invest back into their families, communities, and nations. We know it’s true – when girls and women survive, the world thrives.

Lights will go out around the world on Saturday in honor of Earth Hour—a global call to action to take responsibility for our environmental impact. Bussi Island is answering that call, but it’s likely their work will take much more than an hour.

On November 1, 2012, the USAID released its first-ever policy on Youth in Development. Pathfinder International applauds USAID for taking this important step to advance the rights and opportunities for young people around the world.

Pathfinder International is pleased to join the Girl Effect Global Giving Challenge. Pathfinder was selected as one of 70 organizations to compete to win the opportunity to be featured on the Girl Effect fundraising page on Global Giving.

To further youth engagement on ending child marriage, Pathfinder is incubating a youth-led and youth-centric campaign—JAGRITI (which means ‘awakening’ in Hindi) in Bihar, a state with high rates of child marriage.

With support from Johnson & Johnson, Pathfinder launched a health learning program for in- and out-of-school youth in Can Tho city and Thai Nguyen province to change attitudes and improve knowledge about HIV through life skills-based education.

“I remembered our life-skills forums where we had an opportunity to deal with similar scenarios. I was confident to share with him my feelings, my nervousness and my expectation that I preferred to delay,” one young woman said.  “He agreed with me and showed respect to me. I was very happy.”

Today at the Family Planning Summit, Pathfinder International’s president, Purnima Mane, announced that Pathfinder will commit an additional $3 million by 2014 to its already robust family planning related programs.

Pathfinder International showed its commitment to addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights of the world’s young people by collaborating to develop an NGO community sign-on letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In order to curb high-rates of early marriage, charities like Pathfinder International are supporting "Girls Not Brides" movement.

Representatives from charities in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka gathered in New Delhi last week at the regional launch of the "Girls Not Brides" alliance created by Tutu, 80, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out against white minority rule in South Africa.

Yesterday, a delegation of The Elders met a group of approximately 20 young people from Jagriti, a new youth-led social change campaign against child marriage, which is supported by Pathfinder International.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where 43 percent of people are under 15, and birth rates are still high, experts back contraception and family planning.

"In recent years we as a movement have said let's hang on to what we have achieved." Dan Pellegrom, President of Pathfinder International, said. "That is an argument for retaining the status quo. You don't mobilise people by retaining the status quo."

Pathfinder International is pleased to be awarded a new USAID/Egypt grant for $3,950,000 over the next two years.

Pathfinder is pleased to announce an award as the prime organization under USAID's Evidence to Action for Strengthened Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services for Women and Girls (E2A) project.

Rates of cervical cancer in Pakistan are grounds for concern while many resist HPV Vaccine.

On a visit to St Paul's Hospital's Cervical Cancer Prevention Unit working under Pathfinder, a starkly simple solution for early detection of cervical cancer in an economical and effective manner stared at me. The Unit consisted of three tiny rooms with the simple most equipment, and an old steel bed for patients. A senior nurse professional met us, who heads the small team responsible for detection of the earliest signs of cervical cancer of so many women, and in turn saving their lives.

On April 26th, 2011, Dalia Al-Eryani, the program coordinator for Pathfinder's SAM project will answer questions live online on the Population Reference Bureau's website. Join Dalia and pre-submit your own questions before 1:00PM EDT.

USAID and community leaders in Yemen, a global "hot spot" for child marriage, strive to make a change.

The initial results of this pilot are promising. In one year, community educators reached 29,000 people, leading to an 18 percent jump in awareness in the benefits of delaying marriage. The program was instrumental in preventing 53 girl-child marriages.