Reformed Circumcisers Leading Campaign Against FGM

Village Health Teams are groups of community health workers helping rural women access family planning services. They travel from home to home offering counseling, education and connection to the resources women need but struggle to access, including condoms and pills, often all without having to visit a health facility. VHTs have reached several thousand residents, both with short and long-term contraceptive methods.

The Inspire Women, Men and Children (IWMC) youth empowerment group is teaching women and young girls how to construct reusable sanitary pads in an effort to address period poverty and prevent them from missing school and work during menstruation. The group follows up with students to ensure they’ve properly constructed pads with safe materials and also further educates teachers on how to provide support to students who menstruate.

The Women Against Violations and Exploitation (WAVE) Foundation and The Daisy Network provides support for female genital mutilation (FGM) survivors and works to put an end to FGM across the country. The Daisy Network has spread to several states and has reached more than 3,000 people through their advocacy efforts.

The Bauchi State Impact Project aims to improve maternal and newborn health by training 100 people to become skilled birth attendants. Despite infrastructure challenges, the Project not only provides work and purpose to those trained, but also helps make childbirth safer by providing much-needed care.

Rural NGO YIJHSSI is tackling Niger state's family planning crisis through its "Hope for Mothers" project, training healthcare workers in culturally sensitive counseling and engaging male community members, religious leaders, and local elders. Since launching in 2020, the initiative has trained 93 healthcare workers across seven health facilities and expanded access to family planning for over 2,000 women and girls in conservative rural communities.

Rwanda has implemented a comprehensive, community-driven cervical cancer prevention program combining door-to-door screening campaigns, free HPV vaccination, and health insurance reforms to cover cancer treatment. Since the initiaives launched, six districts have achieved the World Health Organization’s elimination targets, putting Rwanda on track to become the first African country to eliminate cervical cancer by 2027.

Following the national rollout of the HPV vaccine, teams emerged to manage critical components of the rollout, including supply chain management, education, training and data collection. Immunization specialists were also tasked with educating the public on vaccine-related myths and misinformation to assure people getting the shot was safe and necessary. With the help of these outreach strategies, the team managed to vaccinate 387,645 girls.

The Help the Women Campaign raises awareness and provides free cervical cancer screenings. Since forming in 2021, the Campaign has reached 30,000 women and provided 500 screenings. The Campaign also led successful advocacy efforts that convinced the federal government to incorporate the HPV vaccine into the national immunization program.

Brencare Foundation’s Safe Space Project meets once a week within local schools to provide menstrual health, hygiene, sexual and gender-based violence education to girls in need. So far, the Foundation has reached about 5,000 women and girls across several communities with its education efforts.

Girls&More educates girls on menstruation, puberty and menstrual hygiene. The group travels to schools and throughout rural communities to talk to girls and provide them with sanitary pads and other resources they may struggle to access.