News

At Pathfinder International, data is a critical component of our work. Throughout the year, our team tracks the progress of our programs using a set of global indicators. We're pleased to share some of the highlights of the report below.

In partnership with Mobile Kunji and Mobile Academy, Pathfinder is rolling out a training program for thousands of community health workers who will increase the demand and practice of priority maternal and neonatal health behaviors in Bihar, India.

As part of the Ananya programme, BBC Media Action is working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce maternal and infant mortality by 40% in Bihar, India by 2015.

Awareness campaign changes attitude towards sexual health and family planning in Bihar, India.

The moment of awakening for Kumar came during a training programme by an international NGO on reproductive health and family planning. In 2001, Pathfinder initiated a project in Bihar on changing the reproductive behaviour of 650,000 people. Under the first (2001-04) and second phases (2005-08) of project PRACHAR (Promoting Change in Reproductive Behavior in Bihar), 30 local NGOs were trained to develop programmes to educate the youth in five districts, including Nalanda, Nawada, Patna, Gaya and Sheikhpura. Street plays and adolescent training programmes were held to increase mass appeal. During the wedding season, NGOs would visit couples before and after marriage to educate them on contraceptive use and spacing between children.

Female sex workers in Budhwar Pethare are asserting their civic rights and negotiating with police and civic officials to change their situation, backed by Pathfinder International.

“With our help, the women decided to get together and address their issues collectively. Hence, we held elections in June 2011 and a core committee of 12 FSWs got elected. The task before them was not just related to their business like ensuring no minors in brothels or propagating condom usage but taking up issues beyond their profession," said Dr Khursid Bhalla from Pathfinder International.

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.

The success in the growth of contraceptive use in Ethiopia is an important story to be told and indicates the importance of government ownership in improving reproductive health.

"Government ownership is critical [for improving reproductive health]," says Dan Pellegrom, President of Pathfinder International, which has worked in the country since 1964." And Ethiopia's government took ownership." That ownership took the form of renewed commitment to women and girls, and creative collaborations with aid agencies to make long-acting contraceptive methods in particular more available. (Injectable contraceptives are by far the most popular method countrywide).

In India, the stigma surrounding HIV makes it difficult to prevent, support, treat, and care.

Darshana Vyas, project director, Pathfinder International, said, "The convention was held at Panhala (Kolhapur district) and was an attempt to re-energise the MSM community, strengthen community feeling and leverage greater leadership and involvement in project governance and implementation."

Thanks to Pathfinder International, anti-shock garments are saving lives in Northern Nigeria.

"It reduces blood loss by 50 percent and has decreased maternal mortality and morbidity by 40-60 percent in studies in Egypt and Nigeria," says Suellen Miller, RN, Ph.D., director of the Safe Motherhood Program at the University of California at San Francisco, who helped develop the project with Pathfinder and has led trials of the LifeWrap. "Women are able to be stabilized and travel long distances in the garment to large hospitals where they can receive care."

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.

Project director in Yemen, Dr. Hamouda Hanafi, is interviewed about the initiatives and accomplishments in the last five years.

The clinics targeted all the rural areas and villages of the six governorates where the project works. We were able to deliver basic health services to areas that had never had access to governmental or organizations' health services working in the area .

Mothers in Muyinga, Burundi benefit from courses about malnutrition and food groups, making it easier to raise healthy children.

"We have learned about the three food groups—protein, fats, and carbohydrates—and how to mix them properly, something we didn't know how to do before," Nizigiyimana said. "By doing this, our children have gained weight, have much better appetites, and are happier overall."