New York, — During the United Nations General Assembly, UK NGO Lafiya announced “Choose Life,” a new campaign across Sub-Saharan Africa to promote safe family planning by providing women and girls with access to contraception and information.
“From Kyiv to Kano, the right to live freely and safely is universal,” said Kateryna Yushchenko, philanthropist and former First Lady of Ukraine. “Choose Life reminds us that every woman deserves the dignity of making choices that helps her and her family flourish. This campaign is the first step to unlocking a global coalition. For that, I am proud to stand with this campaign.”
“As a long-term advisor to Lafiya’s work, I am enthused by the team’s strategic thinking in scaling alongside national and sub-national governments,” added Dr. Kayode Afolabi, Former Director of Reproductive Health, Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria. “Beyond the concrete impact through direct delivery, the team has planned for intentional sustainable growth ahead, in alignment with the FP2030 commitment of Nigeria. I look forward to seeing this work replicated in other key geographies.”
With over 200 million women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa lacking access to safe and voluntary family planning, almost 90,000 die each year from complications of unintended pregnancies.
For the past four years, Lafiya has worked on the ground in northern Nigeria using a community-based distribution model, offering an innovative, self-injectable contraceptive called DMPA-SC free of charge that provides contraceptive cover for three months from a single injection. So far, 500,000 doses have already been administered to more than 300,000 women. The Choose Life Campaign is a global series of high-level discussions across North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe that convenes civil society, government, and funders to unite advocacy toward autonomy and choice. Lafiya deepens its commitment to extend its impact both within Nigeria, and to one other country by 2026; it is also in discussions with Ministers of Health in several other East and West African nations for potential collaboration.
Siamak Rouhani, Deputy Consul/Chargé d’affaires for the Embassy of Switzerland in Nigeria said “at the Embassy of Switzerland in Nigeria, we have been a continual strategic supporter of Lafiya’s work in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights for women in rural Nigeria. In today’s evolving global health funding landscape, we are excited to see Lafiya deepen its commitment in Nigeria and explore an expansion of its model beyond.”
About Lafiya
Lafiya enables access to safe family planning in Africa by providing women and girls with access to contraception and information. Learn more at lafiya.org.
