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Formerly Minnesota International Health Volunteers
Improving the health of women, children and their communities around the world.
Photo Credit: Phil Bowen
Family Planning
Reducing poverty and improving quality of life requires healthy community members. In Africa, much work remains to reach this objective. Throughout the continent, women face a 1 in 15 risk of dying from maternal causes. As late as the mid-2000s, 175 of every 1,000 children born in Africa were dying before their fifth birthday. Malnutrition rates remain high, and diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis continue to ravage the continent.
Continued high population growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa undermine the best efforts to improve the standards of living and reduce poverty. WellShare is working overseas to develop family planning programs that can keep community populations in check and improve the health outcomes of the individuals who live and work there.
Child spacing is also important domestically. In Minnesota, WellShare is working with Somali communities to teach families the importance of child spacing to improve the health of its youngest members.
Uganda Family planning program addresses critical needs in Uganda
In Uganda, the average woman will give birth to seven children. The country’s population increases by one million people a year, yet only one in four Ugandans uses a family planning method. WellShare’s family planning program, currently located in the Ssembabule and Mubende districts of Uganda, is working to increase access to, use of, and quality of family planning services. Read more.
The Somali Child Spacing project increases knowledge base of family planning
The Somali Child Spacing Project began in 2004 with funding from Minnesota Department of Health’s Family Planning Special Projects. The project aims to provide culturally appropriate reproductive health education and resources to the Somali community in Minnesota and to the health care providers who serve them. Read more.
Tanzania’s Child Survival Project includes child spacing componente
Aspart of WellShare’s five-year Child Survival Project in Tanzania, WellShare has incorporated a family planning component. In late 2008, WellShare completed renovations on the first Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Center in Karatu Town, Tanzania. The center provides space for postnatal counseling and health education, which includes family planning education for mothers and their partners. Read more.
