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News Article29/10/2010

Marie Stopes International (MSI) Burkina Faso opened to the public in August 2009 and since then has been making a huge impact on the people there.

Situated in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, MSI has established a static center and two outreach teams that cover more than 40 sites in 6 districts. In its first year, MSI Burkina Faso served 13,000 clients, 75% of whom sought family planning services.

The impact of MSI’s family planning services on the health of women and children in Burkina Faso has been significant. From August 2009 to July 2010, MSI Burkina Faso’s work will prevent:

• 18,437 unwanted pregnancies
• 94 maternal deaths
• 1,396 infant deaths
• 2,557 deaths of children under 5 years old.

One Burkinabé woman expressed the necessity of family planning services saying, “If we space our births, we will still have the strength and we can work hard, enroll our children in school, and also make money.”

Despite the often steadfast beliefs of Burkinabés against the usage of family planning, MSI Burkina Faso has been making significant inroads in changing behaviour and increasing family planning uptake.

In its first year, the team reached more than 80,000 people through information, education and communication activities. In addition, over 1200 group discussions and 1300 individual discussions were facilitated, alongside 175 mass public campaigns.

Sally Hughes, Country Director of MSI Burkina Faso said: "Our experience has demonstrated that, notwithstanding socio-cultural barriers, when women are given information and access to quality, low cost services, they choose to use them”.

The next 12 months will see expansion of outreach services to the Plateau Central region, and proposals are in the pipeline for expansion of MSI service delivery, and the establishment of a social franchise.

MSI Burkina Faso remain committed to providing the best reproductive health services possible to its clients.

 

Related categories: Burkina Faso