“The eyeglasses have helped me to read my [self-paced learning] units without problems, especially at night. At work they are my second eyes... work goes on as normal unlike before. I am so happy because the glasses have improved my sight.”

A midwifery superintendent at Yendi...

“Postabortion care is helping very much. It has improved the management of clients, not only those with incomplete abortion but also others… People have understood about family planning, and my records show an increase in the number of family planning clients.”

For Milka...

“The nurse was very caring and gave me information about the program. She let me have time to reflect, and I decided to do the test. Then she counseled me before taking my blood.”

Already in labor when she arrived at the hospital in Kibuye, a village on Lake Kivu in western...

“The maps will help us in the future so that the government will take us into account in development plans.”

Altagracia Feliciano, a health promoter in Batey Esperanza, Dominican Republic, recently participated in a community mapping exercise conducted by the PRIME II Project...

“I was very afraid, but the midwife was so gentle with me. And after treatment she talked to me about STDs, AIDS and family planning.”

For this 17-year-old Ghanaian adolescent, a midwife’s ability to provide both emergency postabortion care and non-judgmental counseling about...

“For women who want to plan their families and their husbands won’t let them, I tell them to come with their kids to my house in the afternoon and we take advantage to talk about family planning.”

Lichita, a health promoter in rural El Salvador, reaches out to women with...

“The violence against women program has had a great influence on our health providers. They now understand that many complications occur as a result of violence, problems that cannot be treated or prevented without addressing the issue of violence upfront.”

Dr. Efrosya...

“Before we elected our committee, the nurse-midwife would come, take a walk around the village and leave. We did not know who she vaccinated nor did we know how many women were pregnant. Now we catch her and get our work done.”

Parvati, a mother of three in her 40s, is a...

“I first heard of PMTCT during an educational talk at the health center. Now I know that I can live positively and do things to prevent my baby from becoming infected with HIV.”

Abyot, a young woman in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, learned about prevention of mother-to-child...

“Before, we heard that they treated young people poorly. But now the nurses have all been nice to us. They even go visit the teen club members who have just had their babies.”

In El Salvador the vulnerability of adolescents’ sexual health is illuminated by two statistics. For...