Member Associations

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.  

LLAVES is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 by Allan Dunaway and Rosa Gonzalez in response to the particular needs of people living with HIV, specifically in the defense of the human rights of this population. LLAVES has developed expertise in the area of communication and uses it as a vehicle for primary and secondary prevention of HIV and other STIs, human rights advocacy, political advocacy, promotion of values, as well as the involvement of other key actors in the response to the epidemic, and its territorial areas of work are regional, national and international. LLAVES seeks to enhance the availability and quality of access to and use of key information, products and services for development that contribute significantly to improving the lives of people living with HIV and other vulnerable groups. The advocacy developed by LLAVES has been instrumental in achieving access to comprehensive care for people living with HIV, as well as a legal framework such as the special HIV Law and its reform. LLAVES has also been active in the development and implementation of the Five Year Plan on HIV and Human Rights: Reducing Human Rights Related Barriers to Access to HIV Services, an ambitious plan that aims to reduce legal, policy, scientific and community gaps. It comprises seven program areas, aimed at strengthening programs to protect and promote human rights, because human rights-related barriers impede the reach, use and impact of comprehensive HIV prevention and care services.   Instagram Twitter