Family Care International (FCI) has been active in Niger since 1995. Our field office in Niamey opened in 1999 and is now the cornerstone of our activities to promote HIV/AIDS prevention and reduce maternal mortality. Sexual health and rights awareness among adolescents is a critical component of our outreach efforts.

Improving Adolescent Health and Preventing HIV

FCI, in partnership with local partners and youth groups, produced sexuality education materials for French-speaking Africa that provide straightforward information to young people about their bodies, their options, and their futures and help them develop the self-confidence and skills they need to make healthy choices. These materials have been widely distributed in Niger and are being used by a broad range of partners in over 10 countries in the region. The video has been dubbed into Haoussa and Djerma to facilitate wider use in the country. FCI has trained youth counselors and program managers on how to use these materials effectively. The materials have also anchored our wide-reaching adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outreach program in Niamey that is now increasingly addressing HIV/AIDS within the context of reproductive health.

Girls who have little or no education are most vulnerable, yet almost no programs exist to address their needs. In December 2005, FCI began implementing a six-month project to provide SRH education and life skills to girls and young women in four vocational training centers in Niamey. The goal was to build the capacity of the teachers and administrators to enable them to continue to provide the educational curriculum. Students undergo a 13-week program based on FCI’s health education materials.

Niger was one of four focus countries of FCI’s regional advocacy project aimed at preventing the spread of HIV among young people. FCI trained youth and youth-serving groups to advocate for the implementation of policies to prevent HIV/AIDS among young people. Trained advocates developed strategies—including radio call-in programs and community theater—and implemented them with FCI’s support. One outcome of the project was the formalization of neighborhood youth associations that subsequently received official recognition by the municipal authority, allowing them to claim a reserved seat on their regional HIV/AIDS coordinating committee.

Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Niger ranks last on the UNDP Human Poverty Index and is unlikely to reach the MDGs by 2010. Death and disease due to poor sexual and reproductive health are major public health problems in this country, which has the highest fertility rate and one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Africa. This issue is threatening all efforts that Niger is currently undertaking to eradicate poverty. This is why there is a strong need for local advocates to link reproductive health and the MDGs.
In order to build local capacity, FCI Niger and local partner NGOs Bunkasa Ged and Yoth Leaders Network have developed the publication "Sexual and Reproductive Health and MDG's: from Statement to Action- a Niger overview". Visit our Publications section to download.

Strengthening Postabortion Care (PAC)

FCI is also working to reduce the number of women who die from complications of unsafe abortions through a pioneering effort with the Ministry of Health to introduce postabortion care (PAC) in public hospitals in the capital, Niamey and other regions in the country. Through this national-scale effort, doctors and midwives are trained to treat women suffering from abortion complications, and provide them with counseling and family planning services that can help end the cycle of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.

For more information contact:

Family Care International
Francophone Africa Program
588 Broadway, Suite 503
New York, NY 10012
Tel : (212) 941-5300
Fax: (212) 941-5563
E-mail: franco@fcimail.org