An update from DKT International

DKT International Newsletter

November 2016

Dear Friend of DKT,

Since 1989, DKT's mission has been to provide women around the world with the means to control their fertility. We are committed to providing high-quality, affordable contraception, ensuring access to safe abortion, educating young adults and teens on sexual health, and providing respectful care.

While these services can be controversial, DKT believes in trusting women to make their own decisions, and in giving women the resources they need to plan their lives.

We are proud to stand with women worldwide. As always, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Chris Purdy

President

Sayana Press: One Year Update

In Nigeria, 29% of Sayana Press users are new contraceptive users

In October 2015, DKT began to offer the injectable contraceptive Sayana Press in Nigeria. The University of California, San Francisco recently released this monitoring and evaluation report on the roll out of Sayana Press and the demographic profile of current users. Their data indicate that in the past year:

4,000 healthcare providers have been trained to administer Sayana Press
9,000 women have signed up to receive text message reminders to schedule their next appointment.
86% of users planned to continue using Sayana Press
29% of users were first time contraceptive users

The data suggest that Sayana Press may be particularly appealing to young women. Of the nearly one-third of Sayana Press users who had never used birth control, a majority of these women were 25 or younger. Attracting young and first time contraceptive users is particularly critical in Nigeria, where youth often face discrimination when seeking family planni ng.

DKT Bees visit slums in Nigeria to provide

family planning counseling

The launch of Sayana Press has been carried out in large part by DKT Bees-- community health workers who go door to door in slums to provide family planning counseling. DKT Bees are an invaluable resource in reaching young, poor, and marginalized women who may otherwise be unable to access high-quality care.

Partnership with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

DKT was recently awarded a $25 million grant and $12.5 million loan by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand DKT's geographic reach and to scale up its existing programming. In the next two years, DKT will provide contraception in an additional 20 countries throughout Latin America and West Africa, including 11 countries designated as critical to the FP2020 Initiative.

The grant is results dependent such that DKT must meet particular goals for women's health outcomes to receive full grant funding in 2018-2020. DKT estimates that this support from the Gates Foundation will allow us to generate an additional 10 million Couples Years of Protection (CYPs) beyond what DKT would otherwise achieve.

DKT is the first recipient of this innovative financing mechanism, and we are excited to continue our work with the Gates Foundation to secure women's access to affordable, high quality contraceptives in developing countries. DKT will repay the entirety of the below-market interest rate loan to the Foundation over the next several years.

Read the official press release announcing the grant here .

Reaching Women in Ghana


DKT finds innovative ways to reach women in Ghana

In Ghana, DKT hosted a series of talks about family planning in several regions across the country, including Ashanti, Volta, and Cape Coast. DKT offers a wide range of hormonal contraceptives, including oral and emergency contraceptive pills, implants, and IUDs.

The community tours are part of a greater effort by DKT to provide information on modern contraception in Ghana and to inform women where they can access reproductive healthcare. Like several other countries in West Africa, the modern contraceptive prevalence rate in Ghana lags behind the rest of the African continent, with less than a third of women accessing contraception. As part of the new Lydia "I Plan" campaign, DKT has launched a series of video tutorials designed to explain how modern birth control methods work. The videos, which are available on the Lydia Ghana website , feature the popular Ghanaian actress and Lydia brand ambassador Naa Ashorkor.

Fighting Taboos in Myanmar

Over the past several months, DKT has been working to challenge taboos in Myanmar surrounding sexual health and family planning.

In one campaign targeted to men, DKT launched a series of condom commercials featuring the character Captain Jo Gyi, a self-proclaimed "condom connoisseur". In all of the spots, the Captain offers men advice about safe sex, as in this ad, "5 Tactics to avoid embarrassment while buying a condom" . The message of these commercials is that condom use is essential and that buying a condom should be as simple as buying a soft drink.

DKT recently sponsored a segment about family planning and sexual health on a popular daytime television show. The goal of this campaign is both to challenge the notion that sex is an improper topic for television and to engage the university students and housewives who frequently watch daytime TV.

DKT also regularly attends street festivals to hand out condom samples and promote safe sex. DKT recently attended the five day long Yay Kyaw street festival in Yangon and distributed 1,000 Kiss condoms.

DKT conducts safe sex campaigns across Myanmar

Spotlight on Tanzania

DKT Tanzania hosts makeup parties to engage young women

To get more women talking about birth control, DKT's Trust clinics in Tanzania have been hostin

g special events where women can get free makeovers and information about birth control. Women who attend these makeup parties receive special discounts on products and services at Trust clinics, which include birth control services as well as cervical and breast cancer screening, HIV counseling, and prenatal care.

DKT Tanzania also recently launched a website to provide Tanzanians with information about their contraception options, the locations of Trust family planning clinics, and other topics in sexual health.

Amazon Smile

DKT is now a participating charity on Amazon Smile. By shopping on Amazon Smile and designating DKT as your intended charity, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your proceeds to DKT at no additional cost. You can click on or bookmark the following link to select DKT as your charity:

smile.amazon.com/ch/58-1593137