About Marie Stopes Timor-Leste (MSTL)
MarieStopes Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste is one of the youngestnations in the world, gaining independence in 2002. The country has madesignificant improvements to the lives and wellbeing of it's population sinceindependence, yet many challenges remain. This includes high rates of maternalmortality and teenage pregnancy.
Nearly 70% of married women inTimor-Leste want to delay having children or not have any more at all, yet only22% are using any form of contraception. Thisis one of the lowest contraceptive prevalence rates in the Asia Pacific region.
At 22%, Timor-Leste has one of thelowest contraceptive prevalence rates in the Asia Pacific region.
Whatwe do in Timor-Leste
Since 2007 we have been one of theleading sexual and reproductive healthcare organisations in Timor-Leste. Ourcentre in Dili, national youth hotline, and 11 outreach teams providecomprehensive family planning education, counselling and services.
A strong partnership with theTimor-Leste Government is critical to our success. Marie Stopes Timor-Leste,with longstanding support from the Australian Embassy in Timor-Leste, works inclose collaboration with the Ministry of Health to not only increase access tovital services, but also set quality of care standards and best practice acrossthe national health system.
In 2015, we began an innovativepilot project to provide tailored family planning capacity building togovernment service providers. By sharing our knowledge and expertise we canhelp strengthen the public health sector, ensuring choice reaches all women andcommunities in Timor-Leste.
Howwe deliver services in Timor-Leste
People living in rural areas havebeen known to walk hours to access government facilities, where we work inclose partnership with Ministry of Health staff to deliver services. Muchof the country is mountainous and hard to reach, so outreach remainsour most effective way of serving those who can’t travel long distances to us.
Around half of the people we reachin Timor-Leste are classified as poor according to the Multi-DimensionalPoverty Index, and live in very remote areas where reproductivehealth services are almost completely inaccessible.
Our outreach programme inTimor-Leste is extensive – we operate in 11 out of the 13 municipalities. Everymonth our dedicated teams travel to vulnerable communities by foot, motorbike,car and boat to provide family planning and reproductive health services.
In 2015 we scaled up our outreachprogrammes to begin using mobile outreach tents as well, ensuring we couldserve even more clients with privacy and dignity. Where possible, we will alsowork through community health centres, village health posts, and publichospitals.
Many thousands of people inTimor-Leste have come to rely on us as their only source of trusted familyplanning and sexual health information.