Marie Stopes Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is one of the youngest nations in the world, gaining independence in 2002. The country has made significant improvements to the lives and wellbeing of it's population since independence, yet many challenges remain. This includes high rates of maternal mortality and teenage pregnancy.

Nearly 70% of married women in Timor-Leste want to delay having children or not have any more at all, yet only 22% are using any form of contraception. This is one of the lowest contraceptive prevalence rates in the Asia Pacific region.

What we do in Timor-Leste

Since 2007 we have been one of the leading sexual and reproductive healthcare organisations in Timor-Leste. Our centre in Dili, national youth hotline, and 13 outreach teams provide comprehensive family planning education, counselling and services.

A strong partnership with the Timor-Leste Government is critical to our success. Marie Stopes Timor-Leste, with longstanding support from the Australian Embassy in Timor-Leste, works in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health to not only increase access to vital services, but also set quality of care standards and best practice across the national health system.

In 2015, we began an innovative pilot project to provide tailored family planning capacity building to government service providers. By sharing our knowledge and expertise we can help strengthen the public health sector, ensuring choice reaches all women and communities in Timor-Leste.

How we deliver services in Timor-Leste

People living in rural areas have been known to walk hours to access government facilities, where we work in close partnership with Ministry of Health staff to deliver services. Much of the country is mountainous and hard to reach, so outreach remains our most effective way of serving those who can’t travel long distances to us.

Around half of the people we reach in Timor-Leste are classified as poor according to the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index, and live in very remote areas where reproductive health services are almost completely inaccessible.

Our outreach programme in Timor-Leste is extensive – we operate in 11 out of the 13 municipalities. Every month our dedicated teams travel to vulnerable communities by foot, motorbike, car and boat to provide family planning and reproductive health services.

In 2015 we scaled up our outreach programmes to begin using mobile outreach tents as well, ensuring we could serve even more clients with privacy and dignity. Where possible, we will also work through community health centres, village health posts, and public hospitals.

Many thousands of people in Timor-Leste have come to rely on us as their only source of trusted family planning and sexual health information.