Member Associations

Since it was founded in 1990, the Association Mauritanienne pour la Promotion de la Famille (AMPF)  has focused primarily on sensitizing both the general population and the country’s political and religious leaders to the personal and economic benefits of family planning, and on promoting provision of proper sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. AMPF provides SRH services including family planning (FP), antenatal and post-natal counselling, mother and child immunization, paediatrics, incomplete abortion care and referral, HIV and AIDs protection including PMTCT, and general SRH counselling.  Sensitization and awareness creation is indirectly carried out through children’s vaccination clinics, through programmes providing nutritional advice, and through general maternal and child health services (a critical requirement in a country subject to high levels of maternal and child mortality). AMPF is committed to improving women’s status as a fundamental principle if the nation’s demographic circumstances are to change for the better. Spreading awareness of the benefits of birth spacing is an important component in this, as is the promotion of economic opportunities for women. AMPF has been involved in the creation of a number of craft-based co-operatives in pursuit of this aim. Special efforts have been made to reach marginalized and under-served populations.   AMPF’s efforts in advocacy and policy dialogue contributed to enacting the Reproductive Health Act, a Religious judgment outlawing female genital mutilation (FGM) and other harmful practices. AMPF enjoys a good reputation and has strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Health, other CSOs, and with the UNFPA.   Website: http://maurifemme.org/Ong/ampf.html  

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/