“Now I have the self-respect to just say ‘no’ to boys, and I know I can use condoms if I want to have sex.”

Sarah—a teenager in Uganda’s Jinja District—watched three of her friends drop out of school in 1998 when they became pregnant. As a “disco kid” she was at risk of...

“When clients inquired about various family planning methods in the past, we were usually unable to give them relevant information since we were more focused on HIV/AIDS prevention. Now, we can easily explain and promote dual protection.”

With assistance from the PRIME II...

“There are 40- to 45-year-old women who don’t know anything about contraception and they have children who are adolescents already. What will they tell them? One woman asked me during counseling: ’Where have you been with your family planning methods when I was having my previous six...

“Active Management is very enjoyable and even rather pretty to observe. Before, the mothers made a lot of noise because it was painful to have the contractions and have us push on their stomach. Now we don’t have to push and it’s even hard to tell there was a delivery, everything is so...

“I can say that I saved a life. I treated a woman who was bleeding profusely. She was worried and her parents were worried. Performing MVA and rapidly stabilizing her with an IV gave confidence to the woman, and she thanked me a lot for having saved her life.”

Through...

“If it is a birth I cannot attend alone, I look for help. When there is no emergency vehicle, I find the person on call to help me take the patient.”

Felipa Arteta, a traditional birth attendant in rural Nicaragua, has learned how to assess whether she can assist with a...

“Our job is to ensure that our community members get the quality services they need. If someone is dissatisfied with the attention they receive in the clinic, they come to me and I help solve the problem.”

As a member of the Clinic-Community Committee, Juana Tavarez meets...

“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...