News

This Ganesh festival, commercial sex workers at Budhwar Peth can heave a sigh of relief as the demand for vargani (monetary contribution) has gone down considerably. Sex workers have stood up for their rights and protested against forcible collections.

 “Ever since the CLC was set up as part of a project by Pathfinder International’s programme — Mukta — women have found a platform from where they can discuss their concerns and interests,” says T K Jayarajan, deputy director (documentation), Pathfinder International.

This month a study was published that questions the WHO’s decision to list misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. Leading experts at Pathfinder International have carefully reviewed this new study and find its methodology flawed.

New innovative partnerships with the private sector are key to meeting the UN's millennium development goals

"In the four minutes I have to speak, two or three women will have died in childbirth." With this stark observation, Purnima Mane, chief executive of health NGO, Pathfinder International, reminded an audience of more than 100 company executives, ministers and global health leaders why they were gathered together.

Pathfinder President and CEO, Purnima Mane, joins the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Board of Directors.

"As a former member of IAVI’s Policy Advisory Committee, I have long believed that the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine is essential to bringing an end to the AIDS pandemic,” Purnima Mane, President and CEO of Pathfinder International, said. “That conviction has been reinforced continually over nearly three decades of work in areas related to AIDS and sexual and reproductive health. I look forward to working with IAVI to help make the goal of a broadly effective AIDS vaccine a reality.”

Pathfinder is pleased to have more than 20 posters, presentations and events at the 2012 International AIDS Conference. Learn more about our presence in DC July 22-27, 2012.

With support from Johnson & Johnson, Pathfinder launched a health learning program for in- and out-of-school youth in Can Tho city and Thai Nguyen province to change attitudes and improve knowledge about HIV through life skills-based education.

“I remembered our life-skills forums where we had an opportunity to deal with similar scenarios. I was confident to share with him my feelings, my nervousness and my expectation that I preferred to delay,” one young woman said.  “He agreed with me and showed respect to me. I was very happy.”

On July 17th, 2012 Pathfinder collaborated with the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs to organize a workshop to review existing policies for ethnic minority students in medical education.

Today’s landmark Family Planning Summit hailed the right of every woman to choose if, when and how often to bear children and marked a return of world attention to an essential human right and the core of Pathfinder’s work: access to contraception.

One in every 89 Pakistani women will die of childbirth-related causes compared to 1 in 8,000 in the developed world.

“We have committed a lot but funding support toward the achievement of these is quite insufficient. With this pace of growth and lack of family planning policy it is difficult for Pakistan to achieve the targets by 2015, rather it would require the next 10 years to do achieve these goals,” Tauseef Ahmed, Pathfinder's Pakistan Country Representative, said.

Today at the Family Planning Summit, Pathfinder International’s president, Purnima Mane, announced that Pathfinder will commit an additional $3 million by 2014 to its already robust family planning related programs.

On July 11, the UK Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with UNFPA and other partners, will hold a groundbreaking Family Planning Summit in London.

New maternal mortality estimates confirm that the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth is declining. In the last 20 years, maternal mortality has nearly halved—a significant step forward. However, 800 women a day are still dying.

Pathfinder International showed its commitment to addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights of the world’s young people by collaborating to develop an NGO community sign-on letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Female sex workers in Budhwar Pethare are asserting their civic rights and negotiating with police and civic officials to change their situation, backed by Pathfinder International.

“With our help, the women decided to get together and address their issues collectively. Hence, we held elections in June 2011 and a core committee of 12 FSWs got elected. The task before them was not just related to their business like ensuring no minors in brothels or propagating condom usage but taking up issues beyond their profession," said Dr Khursid Bhalla from Pathfinder International.

Today the World Health Organization released their much-anticipated recommendations on hormonal contraceptives and HIV. Pathfinder was pleased to participate in the consultation and supports WHO's position.

In order to curb high-rates of early marriage, charities like Pathfinder International are supporting "Girls Not Brides" movement.

Representatives from charities in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka gathered in New Delhi last week at the regional launch of the "Girls Not Brides" alliance created by Tutu, 80, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out against white minority rule in South Africa.

Yesterday, a delegation of The Elders met a group of approximately 20 young people from Jagriti, a new youth-led social change campaign against child marriage, which is supported by Pathfinder International.

Pathfinder International officially welcomed Purnima Mane, PhD and life-long champion of sexual and reproductive health and women's rights, as its next president and CEO today.

Today's 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is a critical moment to bring attention to the need for safe, legal, accessible abortion services both in the United States and around the world.

The 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark legislation legalizing abortion in the United States, is an opportunity to reflect on global abortion laws and their effects on women.

Various social trends can have an effect on abortion rates, the Lancet report states, though they are difficult to gather local data on, including more women entering the labor force, a rise in the age when women marry, or more sexual activity outside of marriage. The halt in the decline in the rate of global abortions could also be a result of stagnating levels of funding for international family planning, says Cathy Solter, Senior Fellow at Pathfinder International, a nonprofit focused on maternal health and education in developing countries.