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 palnning, 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.   Website: http://www.acbef.org/

Association HERA XXI was registered as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in 1997 and joined IPPF as an Associate Member in 2000. The organization has associated clinics across the country, focusing on some of the poorest regions (including Samtskhe-Javakheti and Adjara) where the need for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is most acute.   The Member Association has a strong youth focus, running peer educator programmes, involving young people at a high level in the organization’s structure. Young people are encouraged to devise, develop, implement and deliver their own projects. The need for change in gender attitudes amongst men is substantial and male peer educators receive additional training in this area. HERA XXI runs a counselling centre on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS, and it has undertaken a range of highly focused HIV and AIDS projects for migrant workers, particularly during the construction of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline (running from the Caspian coast in Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean coast in Turkey). These projects involved intensive information, education and communication (IEC) activities with local medical professionals, local communities, sex workers and site workers.   HERA XXI fights against unsafe abortion. The Member Association trains health professionals coming from different regions in Georgia on safe abortion. Its intensive advocacy has resulted in a partnership with the Ministry of Health against unsafe abortion.   Contacts Website: www.hera-youth.ge/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AssociationHeraXXI