Member Associations

Associação Para o Planeamento da Família (APF) is a vibrant and dynamic Member Association which has played a key role in advancing the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) agenda in the country. It has 10 regional delegations operated by volunteer staff, and works closely with health and education professionals, and with professionals engaged in community intervention, particularly with reference to the SRH needs of young people. Information, education, training and advocacy are central to APF’s work. APF runs programmes in fields such as sexual orientation, early pregnancy and motherhood, teenage parenthood, abortion, contraception, male SRH, and the prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS. The Member Association played a crucial role in a long campaign to legalize abortion in the country. A bill to allow abortions up until the 10thweek of pregnancy finally received parliamentary approval in 2007. APF manages a resource centre, which has an extensive library of information and publications on SRH. It operates a telephone helpline (Sexuality Online) which provides information, support, counselling and referral services for young people, and a second helpline dedicated to assisting individuals in need of advice over unwanted pregnancy. Over the years, the Member Association’s service delivery and advocacy work has made an invaluable contribution to improvements in SRH and maternal and child health and to contraceptive awareness, understanding and use. It has also helped to produce a significant reduction in numbers of teenage pregnancies.     Contacts Website: www.apf.pt Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apfamilia  

Ghana is a country which has deep-rooted cultural norms, and structural barriers that perpetuate poor sexual and reproductive health. These include high risks of maternal mortality, high numbers of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and low levels of contraceptive use. The Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) was set up in 1967 to provide family planning services to the people of Ghana. Over the years, its work has expanded to cover a whole range of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Today, in addition to basic family planning support, PPAG provides maternal and child health care, infertility management, and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS. It also provides other SRH services (for example, programmes for the management of erectile dysfunction).   PPAG’s operation depends on a team of 103 staff, over 1,000 volunteers, 300 peer educators, 551 community-based distributors (CBDs) and a Youth Action Movement membership of 810 young people. PPAG's delivers services and programmes through 1,356 service points, including 11 permanent clinics, 54 mobile clinics and over 1,000 community-based service points (CBSs). PPAG works with a huge roster of partners, right across government in health, education, HIV and AIDS, youth, and population planning departments. Its civil society networks include over 15 non-governmental organizations. It receives financial support from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning, UNFPA, the Programme For Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), the African Youth Alliance (AYA), the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) of UK, DANIDA, the French Embassy, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), UNICEF and GTZ.   Contacts Website: www.ppag.org.gh Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Planned-Parenthood-Association-of-Ghana-PPAG-258152110962577/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ppagghana