What Interact Worldwide Does
Interact Worldwide works on issues of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in solidarity with indigenous partner organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We take a rights based approach, which is a framework that allows poor and marginalised people to demand as a 'right' the basic conditions that allow them to live in dignity. Our work focuses specifically on the most marginalised communities and individuals: those who most commonly experience abuse or denial of rights.
Interact Worldwide and partners are engaged in service provision, education work, and advocacy at a local, national and international level, as appropriate in each situation. Groups we commonly work with include those living with HIV, rural women, adolescents, refugees, men who have sex with men, and intravenous drug users. All these marginalised groups face discrimination and lack of access to services and support. They are consequently particularly vulnerable to sexual and reproductive ill health, which could include maternal mortality or morbidity, HIV, gender based violence, or other sexual ill health.
Poor sexual and reproductive health is often a product of poverty and marginalisation, but it can also cause it. It should therefore be seen as an intrinsic part of any development strategy. We believe that working on sexual and reproductive health and rights - such as tackling the AIDS pandemic, maternal mortality or gender inequalities - is impossible without a wider investment in health systems of developing countries. This investment, accompanied by political will to uphold human rights, is essential if we are to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
