“My name is Asmaa Hussein Al-Taishi, Executive Director of the Sudanese Family Planning Association (SFPA) in El Geneina, West Darfur.
Reproductive health services for women in El Geneina are very limited and not easily accessible. As a local association, we provide a range of essential services in West Darfur, including sexual and reproductive healthcare, protection services, advocacy, breast cancer awareness, and health promotion, in addition to family planning. We have stepped in to support women with these services to reduce maternal deaths and ensure women can access integrated, high-quality reproductive care.
A few months after the war started in April 2023, our association resumed its work in West Darfur from our office in El Geneina in November 2023, supported by six months of funding from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). During that period, we focused on mobile clinics, reproductive health services, and supplying family planning methods to mothers.
When this funding ended in June 2024, support for the clinic and our office stopped. But we did not stop. Despite the severe gaps in services for women, we continued, driven by our determination and commitment as Sudanese women ourselves, to provide family planning, reproductive healthcare, and community awareness.
Recently, MSF stepped in with financial support for reproductive health services. This allowed us to reactivate our former center at the mother and child center.
The partnership with MSF has had a significant impact, and we are deeply grateful. It supports a community suffering from war and severe economic hardship, where many families cannot afford the cost of delivery or basic healthcare.
Together with MSF, we provide safe delivery services, completely free of charge, including laboratory tests and pharmacy services.
Thanks to this support, we can also offer fully integrated care: health education, nutrition counseling, breastfeeding support, and more, all through the center.”
