Because every woman has the right to determine her own future.
Every day, our teams around the world meet thousands of women. At Marie Stopes International, our mission is to ensure every single one of them has the knowledge, tools and power to build the life they want.
Around the world today, 32 million women are using contraception provided by us. That is 32 million women who can finish their education, learn a new trade, start their own business or take care of their family while enjoying a healthy sex life without fear of an unintended pregnancy.
In 2019, we continued to push boundaries and travelled further than ever – across mountains, over rivers, on roads less travelled – to provide high quality, safe services to women and girls, when and where they need them. This year alone, 14 million women were seen by our teams and chose a contraceptive method that fits their individual needs. That is over 38,000 women – every single day – that were enabled to continue to build the life they want.
The services we provided in 2019 resulted in:
13 million unintended pregnancies averted
That’s equivalent to 36,000 unintended pregnancies averted each day in 2019 or 36,000 women who have been able to continue doing whatever they want to do with their lives, every day.
6.5 million unsafe abortions averted
Preventing an unsafe abortion not only decreases the risk of maternal death but also many life-changing complications.
35,000 maternal deaths averted
This number represents not only lives saved but also an estimated 100,000 children who still have a mother because of the services we provided.
Numbers are important, and we are proud to provide the family planning services to one in five women in the countries where we work. But the numbers don’t tell the full story. Every single one of the represent a woman with her own individual wants and needs.
Stories behind numbers
These statistics are not just numbers. They represent real women who have been empowered to do what they want with their lives and futures. One such woman is our client Ndéye Fall, who lives in Senegal with her five children.
Ndéye’s husband lives far away in the capital Dakar, so she is largely left on her own to take care of her children. Every day, she wakes up at 7 a.m. to care for her children before going to work cleaning houses. Her last two pregnancies were difficult and extremely tiring. She was unable to go to the hospital or pay for medications, putting her life and well-being at risk. In the two years after she gave birth, Ndéye was exhausted and had pain everywhere.
Ndéye came to MSI for contraception to prevent future pregnancies, allowing her to take control of her life and her health. She’d heard rumors about the risks of contraception — but an MSI provider put her mind at ease. She now she says that she wishes she had used a family planning method earlier.
With her new contraceptive implant, Ndéye can dream of a bigger future. She hopes that she can one day she find a better job — and set herself and her children up for success. Like the millions of other Marie Stopes International clients, having access to contraception has opened new possibilities for Ndéye and her family.
Everything we do, we do for her.
