Midwives on motorbikes
Dili - the last 12 months have been a year of firsts for MSI Timor Leste. Not only did it open the first ever sexual and reproductive health (SRH) centre in the country, which attracted more than 1000 clients through its doors, but it also successfully implemented a pilot outreach project, affectionately known as “midwives on motorbikes”.
On their distinctive MSI blue motorbikes wearing matching blue helmets, MSI Timor Leste’s midwives have become a familiar site in three key target locations in and around the capital of Dili over the past year.
During their daily travels, often on un-made roads and through mountain passes, the three midwives on motorbikes have been very successful in raising awareness of SRH and basic family planning services. In their first year on the road they have reached nearly 5,000 people through community information and awareness raising sessions and activities. One woman who came to one of the sessions said: “I walked from 6am to get here – it has taken me four hours. I have nine children, one of whom died. I brought four of my children with me today and I’ve come because I am happy with the help I get from MSI.”
Of those attending the sessions, 42% had never heard about contraception before and 54% had never previously heard about STIs. As well as raising awareness, the midwives have been providing family planning services as well. Four hundred of the people from the information sessions have gone on to access services and given that 75% of them had never used contraception before, that's a great result.
The family planning services themselves were delivered in the local communities in locations that were easy to get to. Sometimes this was at the home of the Head of the Village, or in the client's home or sometimes under a tree, in a community building, or in a church.
By explaining to these communities about SRH and the choices available to them, the midwives on motorbikes have helped people that otherwise wouldn't have had access information and services to do so - a small victory in one year in a country where reproductive choice is a new concept, fertility rates are amongst the highest in the world (7.8), and contraceptive prevalence is only 9%.
As the pilot project has proved so successful, the MSI team in Timor Leste have been working hard to find additional funding. This has now been secured which means that not only will the project be expanded in the Dili area but over the next three years, the Midwives on Motorbikes will become an equally familar site in other districts in the country as well!