

| 31 March 2016
Latvian Association for Family Planning & Sexual Health
The Latvian Association for Family Planning & Sexual Health (LAFPSH) focuses on information, education and training activities for health personnel and the general public, and sex education for teachers and young people. The organization has a highly active youth group which runs a safer sex campaign (in conjunction with national media). The group also publishes an advice section in a major youth magazine dealing with problems relating to (for example) puberty, relationships, contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It operates a telephone helpline which is run by young people, for young people. More broadly, LAFPSH runs seminars and workshops on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) concerns such as sexuality and people with disability, gender-based violence and menopause. LAFPSH has significant influence as an advocate at government level, and has been closely involved in developing the national reproductive health programme. This is reflected in the organization’s active programme of information, education and communication (IEC) in conjunction with the Latvian Teachers Association. It has led to the training of over a 1,000 teachers in sex education. A project jointly supported by the Swedish Family Planning Association and the European Commission has enabled LAFPSH to produce and disseminate high quality materials on STIs, condoms and sex education.

| 31 March 2016
Association Congolaise pour le Bien-Etre Familial
The Association Congolaise pour le Bien-Etre Familial (ACBEF) opened its doors for the first time in 1987. Then it was a small operation dedicated to attending to the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of the urban poor. 25 years later, ACBEF reaches out to the whole country through a network of over 100 community-based distributors (CBDs) backed by static clinics and permanent staff. In addition, ACBEF relies on over 1,000 volunteers, including fully-trained peer educators and a Youth Action Movement. ACBEF provides a comprehensive range of services covering integrated family planning, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), prevention and management of HIV and AIDS, post-abortion care, antenatal and post-natal care, youth-friendly education and information projects, contraceptive and laboratory services. Stigma and taboos around HIV and AIDS are strong in Congo, and ACBEF is engaged in major re-education and sensitization on this front. ACBEF aims its work at a wide public, with particular emphasis on young people (aged 25 and under), internally displaced people, sex workers and women of child-bearing age. Work occurs in both rural and urban areas. With high visibility in the national media, ABCEF is making major inroads in SRH in a very difficult environment. ABCEF works in close partnership with the government’s ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs, and Gender, and with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including Jeunesse Action Sida. ABCEF receives financial support from the European Union, UNFPA and the Congolese Government.