Overseas Programs

In 2010/2011 WPF raised and donated about $50,000

to Non Government Organisations' overseas programs for their family planning component.  These NGOs qualify for matched funding by AusAID, greatly increasing the effect of your contributions.

News of 2009/10 -- Speeches on October 21st

(See also the YouTube on the Home Page)

Excerpts from Alice Oppen and guest Maria Deveson-Crabbe, CEO of Marie Stopes International Australia

Alice Oppen [Chairman, Women's Plans Foundation]:  "Since my parents were born, the human population has quadrupled.  Before my children were born the Pill became available.  So my mother's belief that every child should be a wanted child was able to evolve for me into the conviction that all women must be able to manage fertility so we can become part of the world's decision-making process.  In some developing countries, there is still a cultural assumption that a woman's identity is all about childbearing and serving.  but we see that where health and education reach into areas of poverty, women can space births, survival rates improve, health costs go down, and sustainability becomes possible. 

70% of the world's poor are women and girls; women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, earn 10% of the world's income and own 1% of the world's property.  Nearly half of the conceptions worldwide are unplanned and about a quarter are unwanted.  We are seeing population pressures on world water, food, climate and migration fears.

An organisation backed by Sir David Attenborough in the UK has worked out that for every pound spent on contraception, a similar reduction in emissions would cost two times as much for tree panting, four times as much for wind power and eight times as much for solar energy."

Maria Deveson-Crabbe [CEO, Marie Stopes International Australia]:  "2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the contraceptive pill which revolutionised life for millions of women in Australia and other developed nations, giving them the opportunity to choose when and how many children to have.  At Marie Stopes we aim to extend this revolution to the 215 million women in developing countries who want to space of limit the number of children they have but who still do not have access to, or information about contraceptives.

Tonight I would like to tell you a little about our program in Papua New Guinea which was the recipient of the most recent generous donation from Women's Plans Foundation.  Prior to an outreach visit, a Marie Stopes team consisting of a nurse and field educator holds an advocacy meeting with community and church leaders.  This is an important process as it is these leaders who are strong gate-keepers in the community, they are credible people, and they are listened to.  Following this advocacy meeting is an awareness campaign to let everyone know that the Marie Stopes team are coming, when and where.  More often than not, community and church leaders participate by organising their own meetings, announcing it during church and fellowships and even house-to-house visits.

For the first time visit, Marie Stopes PNG brings a full complement of staff--usually 2 nurses, 1 outreach assistant and 1 field educator.  To ensure confidentiality and privacy, the team would normally work in an existing health centre, a home or a community or church hall.  In the absence of such, the team brings a 3 room walk-in tent.  In many instances power and water are challenges. A full size generator and water in containers are brought in.  Each village is visited every 3 months.  In one outreach clinic the team sees an average of 30 clients in Port Moresby and 8 clients in the provinces.  The majority of women chose three monthly injections as their preferred methods of contraception but IUDs and other longer term contraceptive methods are growing in popularity.

Outreach is crucial to being able to impact upon so many women's lives.  The women who can now access family planning services that we provide on our outreach trips are so grateful to be able to space their children and decrease the risks of bearing a number of children so close together.  I am here tonight to forward their gratitude, and that of the Marie Stopes Team in PNG, to you on their behalf."

All at the Annual Cocktail Party and Auction on October 21st appreciated hearing about the work being accomplished as a result of our enjoying a lovely evening fundraising.  It was very good of Maria Deveson-Crabbe to come and add this level of enjoyment and meaning. 

In 2008/9 Women's Plans Foundation gave grants for family planning to Marie Stopes International Australia, Save the Children Australia and ChildFund Australia.  AusAID matched funding is continuing funding with SH&FPA.  We advocate increasing information on the improvements brought to community health as a result of child spacing and numbers.  We can be a conduit of information about the differences family planning makes, with learnings about effective funding.

Focus

AusAID's focus for reproductive health has turned from Southeast Asia to the South Pacific, where men's views of ownership may include women, making continual childbearing a default setting for the woman's role. Violence in gender relationships, and virility measured by the number of children, create barriers to women's entry to health clinics in countries where rapid population increase is creating social and political unrest, perpetuating poverty. The very challenges show the importance of family planning, but the proportion of the reproductive health allocation expended on behavioural programs as a prelude to reaching women and making contraception possible, means that existing levels of funding may not extend to provision of sufficient rural and urban family planning for a sustainable society.  Since 2007 Women's Plans Foundation has been focussing increasingly on programs that directly bring family planning to women who otherwise would lack it.

Donations achieve

Starting in 2003, we raised funds for Family Planning Australia's International Program, contributing towards programs in southeast Asia and the South Pacific, producing an educational video and training programs in local languages, and workshops in reproductive health for young people and men.

In 2006/7, Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia's collaboration with Live & Learn Environment Development Education recently modified an education module so that it was suitable to the Solomon Island context and piloted in workshops throughout villages around Guadalcanal. The revised manual was piloted in 6 communities in Solomon Islands, four communities in PNG and also in Timor Leste. After a year of usage in three different countries, there was to be a manual that is user friendly and available across the Pacific for NGOs.

In 2006/7 Women's Plans Foundation enabled a partnership between Sexual Health & Family Planning Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation in East Timor, to encourage understanding of the link between population and environment.

In 2006/7 Women's Plans Foundation made possible a three year supplement to programs of ChildFund Australia in Vietnam, to strengthen family planning services. The program began with a needs assessment and has increased in the number of methods of contraception available. It has moved into awareness-raising campaigns meeting the needs assessed, with community leaders as models, providing regular consultations and examinations.

In 2007/8, Women's Plans Foundation has encouraged further overseas aid agencies to value the role of contraception in alleviating poverty. Our donations are specifically for access to family planning as a component within larger, holistic programs, and lead to increased focus on a choice of contraceptives in poverty alleviation. 

If we cannot enable women
to manage family size,
our human family will continue
its intolerable stresses on our world.

 

 

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