Our Story

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In 2015 Kelley began a campaign with the support of our dance community and Carolena Nericcio to raise money so that women on the island of Idjwi in Lake Kivu could have a life changing contraceptive implant

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The Queen of the island (Madame Esperance) had organised a self-help group of 600 members called UFIN and was encouraging women and their husbands to use contraception to space out the birth of children or to stop having more children altogether.

This gives the family a chance to improve the nutrition, care and education for each child. The program had been running for three years and 4500 couples were signed up for contraception but after three years only 43 couples had been able to afford the $7 implant

 

We responded to the challenge  

our goal - to help 1000 women and their families benefit from implant contraception

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The island of Idjwi in Lake Kivu is home to 300,000 people, 80% of whom survive on an income of less than $1 per day and are unable to afford the implant

 

The average family has six children, not including those who have died. More than half of these children eat only one meal a day and malnutrition is widespread. More than one third never attend school and many of those that do only attend primary school

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The ATS® community responded with generosity and supported the Queen with donations that enabled 200 women to have the implant. One year later a further 150 women had received implants

More than 100 formed a savings group so that they can afford a second implant from their own pocket and Esperance, the Queen, has been able to demonstrate success to other families on the island. The waiting list was now more than 6,000

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With your support and the sponsorship of a very generous benefactor who had heard about our project we have achieved and surpassed our goal. By the end of 2018 we'd reached 2,000 implants!!!!! That means we have potentially positively affected around 16,000 people as it's not just the women but also their husbands and children who benefit

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In January 2019 we visited Idjwi  and our sponsor had paid for two actors to visit the island and take part in radio broadcasts telling the islanders about the project and the benefits of having an implant. They even visited the local market and soon pulled a huge crowd who initially thought they were campaigners for the recent elections in Congo. The crowd asked questions about the project and some put up objections based on taboos and superstition but rather than the actors answering the questions it was actually the women in the market who had received an implant from our project who explained their own experience and allayed fears

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How inspiring is that!!!! Women empowered by your help

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So many of you have helped by sending donations and organising fundraisers and your money is used for the first implant only. We are encouraging the families who have experienced the benefits to save for a second or third implant if they choose so that we can concentrate on reducing the waiting list and get more families on board

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We now have just over 2,000 women with an implant so we're setting a new target

- let's make it 3,000

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It only takes $7 (the price of two cups of coffee) to enable a family to join the program and change their lives forever.

If you are able to help in any way whether a one off donation, regular donation or by organising a fundraiser then please know that all the monies raised goes directly to the women

The projects are looked after by our team on the ground in Congo which is part of La Difference a registered UK charity  (No: 1174074)

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Thank you all so much for your support

You can donate here or through the FCBD website

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