The Healthy Families Project

Kiribati has some of the worst sexual and reproductive health indicators in the Pacific region.

There are strong socio-cultural gender-norms that leave women subordinate to men and give little priority to women’s health and rights. This has played a major role in the high levels of gender-based violence and poor reproductive health in the country.

Kiribati also has one of the highest incidences of HIV in the region, yet the use of modern contraceptives is low.

In 2012 Family Planning International is implementing The Healthy Families Project in Kiribati. The project aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of I-Kiribati living in the capital, South Tarawa.

Family Planning International is jointly implementing the project with the Kiribati Family Health Association.

The project will implement activities under the following three streams:

• Training of clinical and health promotion staff to improve the quality of SRHR service delivery.
• Increasing access to SRHR services by implementing mobile clinical services, introducing new Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials and expanding health promotion activities.
• Informing and educating South Tarawa community leaders so as to help build an enabling environment for the improvement of SRHR.

This exciting project is the largest Family Planning International has ever undertaken.

The project is funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme and will be carried out over a period of three years.