Welcome to Interact Worldwide
‘Every family, and particularly every woman, should have the right to decide how many children they would like to have. But ‘having the right' is not the same as ‘having the means' to achieve that right. Interact is there to help make the difference.'
- His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
22nd March 2011
Every minute a woman dies of pregnancy related causes. That's the equivalent of five loaded jumbo jets each day; 500,000 or more each year. With another 10 million suffering serious or long-term problems.
Almost 2 out of 3 women in sub Saharan Africa cannot obtain modern contraception.
33.4 million people live with HIV - two thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa - and 2 million died of AIDS related illnesses in 2008. Three out of four new cases of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are now girls as they have neither the means nor the power to protect themselves. Like other key vulnerable groups we work with - sex workers, sexual minorities, people living with HIV, and young people; women and girls cannot obtain the health services they need.
Working for Change
Last year through 21 programmes, with 30 local partners, we build local knowledge of the right to sexual and reproductive health and developed governments' capacity to meet that demand. We reached 247 communities, targeting up to 1.4 million people in India, Pakistan, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and Nicaragua.
However working to increase the demand for services is not enough - we also engaged with health authorities and worked with local organisations and networks to develop effective, locally appropriate health services in nine countries.
Telling the World
Advocacy, on a national and international scale, has always been central to Interact's mission. In order to secure health services for the millions worldwide who are deprived of their right to sexual health, we link with other organisations in the Action for Global Health network. Interact has continued to urge European governments to honour the promise they made at the millennium of ensuring universal access to reproductive health supplies. Collectively with 14 organisations, we are part of Countdown 2015 Europe, another strong body seeking real action for the 137 million women worldwide who cannot obtain and use the contraception they want.
Striving for a Better Future
Interact Worldwide's vision is of a world where women, young people and marginalised groups and communities can protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, where the benefits of basic, lifesaving maternal health care are shared by all, and where all people can exercise their right to make their own decisions - free of stigma, discrimination, coercion and violence.
Stronger Together
In October 2009 Interact Worldwide became part of the Plan family of worldwide charities. It retains its own Board, vision, mission and strategy. We are now developing a new business plan with our merger partner Plan UK to make our vision a reality for many more people across the world. Over the next year we will increase the scope of our work with vulnerable people and leverage the impact our work has had for many more communities.
Interact's vision has no constraints in terms of geography and neither do our current goals.
We Have Moved!
As of Tuesday 4th May Interact Worldwide's new offices are at:
Interact Worldwide
Finsgate
5-7 Cranwood Street
EC1V 9LH
*(main image - from Closing the Gaps programme by Corrie Wingate 2010)
