Celebrating the Contributions of Community Health Workers in Family Planning

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited access to family planning and other essential health care. Country-wide lockdowns and breakdowns of healthcare systems have restricted contraceptive care to the extent that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates there will be 7 million more unintended pregnancies due to the pandemic.

Brave and committed community health workers have been working on the front lines to get women the family planning services they need. In Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, five organizations have been using our Family Planning app to provide a combination of distanced and in-person contraceptive counseling. They’ve also been providing Hesperian with valuable feedback on how we can make the app even better.

As the pandemic continues, we continue to work hard to get the Family Planning app translated into new languages so that more people around the world can access the life-saving information they need. We are proud to announce the release of our Family Planning app in Amharic and Afaan Oromoo! The addition of these two languages will enable our partners in the Ethiopian Public Health Association and Ipas to pilot its use by Health Extension Workers with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health.