Back to School Promo 2022

Press Release

For immediate release

Marie Stopes Sierra Leone (MSSL) launches ‘Back-to-School (B2S) 2022 Promo’.

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE, OCTOBER  4^TH  2022.

The Government of Sierra Leone’s (GoSL) family planning (FP) commitments specifically aim at reaching 755,939 additional women with FP services and to increase modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) from its most recent 21.2% value in 2019 to 33.7% by 2022, and to reduce adolescents birth rates from 125/1000 (2013) to 74/1000 in 2022.

“It is heartening to see that as a consequence of these far-reaching investments, maternal and child mortality rates have been considerably lowered. We have also reduced malaria-related deaths by over 47%; lowered the disease burden for other common illnesses; and the number of people living with HIV who receive lifesaving treatment has doubled” – H.E. Dr. Julius Maada Bio; GCRSL, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, May 2022.

In continued partnership with the government’s health priorities, we are pleased to announce the official launch of ‘B2S 2022 Promo’ today -Tuesday 4^th October 2022 on the theme; ‘My Body, My Future’. The B2S promotion aims to reach women and girls with quality, personalized and confidential FP and SRH services of their choices, and free of costs between Saturday 1^st to Monday 31^st October 2022 at our Outreach and Public Sector Channels.

As part of this year’s version, we are proud to inform you that MSSL will continue working with the Ministry of Basic & Senior Secondary Education and other partners to popularise and implement the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) Policy in secondary schools nationwide. This policy was recently included in the academic curriculum by GoSL following years of advocacy drives for its inclusion by MSSL among others. CSE provides teaching of SRH, Menstrual Hygiene and FP issues from primary right through senior secondary education. Consequently, MSSL helped to develop and print five thousand, eight hundred and ninety-two (5,892) copies of textbooks to aid teaching of CSE across secondary schools in Kambia, Koinadugu and Bonthe districts.

B2S 2022 Promo and the CSE roll-out are funded and supported by MoHS, FCDO, UNFPA, WAHO and other donors. As always, free services will be available from our 14 Outreach teams in all districts and 116 Community Health Centres nationwide.

 “FP is central to gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the prosperity of individuals, families and communities.” – Dr. Natalie Kanem; Executive Director, UNFPA, March 2021.

The free FP services that are available during this year’s B2S Promo are Long Acting & Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) specifically IUD (Coil) and Implant (Captain band), Cervical Cancer Screening and comprehensive and SRH Counselling. Free testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) will be provided by our Outreach Mobile Outreach clinics and 117 government Community Health Centers supported by Marie Stopes.

Once again, we want to appreciate all the mobile telecommunications companies - Orange, Africell, Q-Cell & SierraTel SL for their continued support as our clients, their families and other stakeholders can reach us through the 3535 toll-free lines from their networks to learn more about our services or book their preferred choice of services through all our channels of service deliveries.

Appointments can also be made at http://mariestopes.org.sl/book-an-appoinment.

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For media enquiries and spokesperson interviews, please contact:

Emmanuel Jah – Service Marketing & Communications Manager

Email: emmanuel.jah@mariestopes.org.sl

Tel: +232 79 409144 (direct call & WhatsApp)

About Marie Stopes Sierra Leone

Marie Stopes Sierra Leone (MSSL) is part of a Global Partnership of Marie Stopes International operating in 37 countries, providing personalised contraception and post-abortion Care services to women and girls. MSSL is driven by the mission that people should be able to have children by choice, not chance, regardless of where they live, how old they may be, their marital status or economic means. Our local team of professionals are passionate about the work they do in communities across all regions in Sierra Leone. The high-quality services they provide give women the power to choose when she wants to have children so that she’s free to pursue her plans and dreams for herself and her family.

In 2022, January to August MSSL teams provided the following;

• 338,383 Couple Years of Protection (CYPs) - which means healthier and wealthier families.
• Our services averted 82,538 unintended pregnancies; 55,643 unsafe abortions; 695 maternal deaths We care and 1,850 child deaths for the well-being of communities, 1 individual woman at a time.
• Our services also contributed to making £3.6m Savings in direct health care costs to GoSL.
• Total Clients Visit/ Served 268,612.

Learn more about us at:

www.mariestopes.org.sl or https://www.facebook.com/mariestopessl/ and follow us on Twitter @MarieStopesSL or at Instagram @mariestopesl

[1] Based on impact2 estimation: https://mariestopes. org/what-we-do/our-approach/our-technical-expertise/impact-2/