Timor-Leste
Building the world’s newest nation has been an enormous challenge in Timor-Leste.
At the forefront of this is enormous population growth, coupled with extreme poverty - 40% of the nearly 1 million population lives below the poverty line of less than US$0.55 per day.
Extreme economic hardship coupled with the fact that the average Timorese women will give birth to an average of 8.3 children, the highest rate in the world, was a combination of factors so compelling, that a group of nine Marie Stopes International partners voluntarily provided funding to ensure that the Timor-Leste program would get off the ground.
With additional support from Australian companies and the public, Marie Stopes International Timor-Leste (MSITL) was ‘born’, with the opening of the Dili centre in March 2007.
At 880 deaths per 100,000 live births, the maternal mortality rate is unacceptably high as is the infant mortality rate of between 78 -149 per 1000 live births. These high figures are largely due to young reproductive age, poor birth spacing and poverty.
MSITL has established a centre that will be a hub of sexual and reproductive health information, education, clinical services and capacity building for local providers to work in partnership with the Ministry of Health to assist in meeting the nations reproductive health needs.
Despite daily challenges posed by ongoing security issues and fragile infrastructure in our newest country program, 400 women are already receiving services from the centre every month and many more have access through outreach teams in Dili district.
To ensure our services are reaching women and families in rural regions, a ‘Midwives on Bikes’ community-based distribution service was also established in 2007. This innovative project has midwives travelling by motorbike to vulnerable communities and internally displaced persons camps, providing much-needed education and contraception services. More than 5,000 people have already benefited from this vital activity.
The future of Marie Stopes International Australia's youngest program is bright, with outreach services expanding into five new districts, and sexual and reproductive health education and services to also be provided to the police and army of Timor-Leste.
To donate to our Timor-Leste program, and our other country programs simply click on the link below.