Marie Stopes Cambodia

We began operating in Cambodia in 1998, and over the past two decades have seen the contraceptive prevalence rate of modern methods rise from 7% to 39%^[i].

Thanks to strong partnerships between the Cambodian government, their dedicated public health workers and MSI, more women than ever before are now able to get hold of contraception and safe abortion services in the country.

But we know there is still far to go, with many women in need of contraception unsure where to get quality and safe services, or afraid of accessing services because of cultural stigma - which especially affects young, unmarried women.

What we do in Cambodia

Our Cambodia programme is committed to reaching the most vulnerable and marginalised people, so we also run a number of projects targeted at the young, indigenous communities and garment factory workers.

Our work with youth is of particular importance, considering that 52% of the population of Cambodia is under 24, and they are more likely to dominate the entertainment and garment industries.

Sexual health is still a taboo subject of conversation for unmarried Cambodians, and one of the ways we try to address this is through our dedicated call centre. Run by qualified midwives, the free call centre gives young people the chance to confidentially speak to someone about contraception, pregnancy and sexual health.

How we deliver services in Cambodia

We run centres across the country, providing comprehensive family planning counselling, a wide range of quality short and long-acting contraception, and safe medical and surgical abortion.

We also ensure that women and men are able to choose safe and quality services that are available in their communities, through partnering with government referral hospitals and health centres, private clinics, pharmacies and factory infirmaries.

Our work in garment factories, through the WorkerHealth and Partnering to Save Lives projects, represents our most important form of reaching out and providing services to women in Cambodia - where 90% of the country’s 650,000 garment factory workers are women.

Many factory workers like Savy in the video below, want to be able to time when or whether to have children. They want to improve their living conditions and better provide for their family, but just don’t know where to turn for help.

The Partnering to Save Lives project - a joint partnership between MSI, the Cambodian Ministry of Health, Australian Aid and other NGOs – helped to address this. We trained factory infirmary providers to help spread information and enable convenient access to essential counselling and contraceptives. This method helped us to reach thousands of women, and this has far-reaching benefits for families and wider communities.

Through our WorkerHealth project, we were also pioneering a client referral app that allowed health workers in garment factories to refer their clients to quality assured private health facilities. This was the first electronic referral system of its kind to be up and running in Cambodia.

Strengthening local health systems

Community health centres form the backbone of Cambodia’s public health system. They serve thousands of people every year and are the first port of call for any health service – including contraception. However, in 2010 more than half of these centres didn’t provide a wide range of short and long-acting contraception.

We partner with the Cambodian government to train public health workers in a range of contraceptive methods, including long acting-and permanent methods. We support hundreds of public health facilities with training, quality assurance visits, and on-the-job coaching resulting in more clients receiving high-quality services.