Member Associations

Since its establishment more than 25 years ago, CIFWA has played a major role in expanding the range of SRHR services in the Cook Islands. Obstetrics, family planning (FP), HIV Prevention and STI Treatment including Voluntary Confidentiality Counseling are now available in addition to breast and cervical screenings and treatment of other gynecological disorders. The association is currently working with the Government through the support from the Board President who is currently the Government’s clerk in pushing forward the Family Law Bill. The Bill is expected to be passed in July of 2016 after the public consultation. It continues its work in the area of advocacy and this has encouraged more donor support to the work that they are doing in the area of provision of services to the rural and remote islands.

Founded in 1976, the Dominica Planned Parenthood Association (DPPA) focused on providing information and education to support the government’s clinical service delivery programme in its early years. It began delivering contraceptive services in response to the significant contraceptive needs of Dominicans (particularly among teenagers), and the staffing constraints of the government programme. As a result, people could be sure of at least one inexpensive, private outlet where their family planning needs could be fully met. DPPA’s clinic is located the centre of the capital city and provides a range of services including family planning, pregnancy tests, family counselling and PAP smear screening. There’s an established community outreach programme which provides family planning through volunteers and shop owners, and an extensive programme of information and education activities. These include distributing pamphlets and posters, broadcasting short talks about family planning on radio and television and conducting community discussions. The negative effects of Dominca’s high adolescent pregnancy rate are aggravated by local practices that force pregnant girls to drop out of school permanently. To reach young people, DPPA provides sexuality and life skills education in secondary schools and to adolescents outside the school system through rap sessions, lectures, discussions and films. DPPA has also established an Under 20 Club, a teen group that trains its members as peer educators. BFLA is an associate of an umbrella organization known as the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation Ltd (CFPA). The Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation (CFPA) is the only regional non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to family planning and sexual and reproductive health in the Caribbean. CFPA serves 13 island Member Associations and 5 Associate Member Associations in the Caribbean, Central and South America. It supports these Associations with technical assistance and materials, and represents their collective interests at IPPF meetings and in the Caribbean region among governments and NGOs. CFPA Member Associations are located in Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Nevis and St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. CFPA Associate Member Associations are located in Belize, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The CFPA does not offer any clinical services or distribute family planning methods to clients, but rather focuses its work on governance and institution-building among its Member Associations. The CFPA oversees, manages and analyses core grants to 7 Caribbean Member Associations. The CFPA also submits project proposals for donor funding on behalf of the Associations. DPPA's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Dominica-Planned-Parenthood-Association-154855487890859/