In order to help address the high levels of maternal mortality and morbidity in the countries where we work, all our projects provide free family planning commodities and confidential counselling. This service is offered to fistula patients at the Freedom From Fistula clinics, as well as maternity patients at the Aberdeen Women's Centre in Sierra Leone when they return for their 6-week post-delivery check-up and parents bringing their children to the Outpatient Children’s Clinic (OPC).
There are group sessions for family planning, as well as individual counselling, explaining family planning in the context of safe sex and birth control and in 2021 AWC provided 4652 patients with family planning counselling sessions and 254 group health talks for OPC and maternity patients.
AWC also has a dedicated HIV Nurse who tests and counsels patients, and provides treatment as needed, referring them to the local government hospital for antiretroviral treatment. The AWC had planned to become an HIV treatment centre in 2021 so patients would no longer have to be referred but this was postponed by the Ministry of Health.
Most commodities are provided to FFF centres by the Ministries of Health, UNFPA and other donors.
