TIMOR LESTE: Family Planning & Sexuality Education Conference Held
Timor Post reported on 3 June on a regional conference on family planning, reproductive health and sexual education in Baucau district. The article noted that GMPTL, the organization responsible for coordinating the conference, holds a regional consultancy supported by numerous NGOs, governmental and intergovernmental agencies, including UNFPA
SIERRA LEONE: Free Health Care Law Discussed
Awoko reported on 3 June that The Sierra Leone Peoples' Party (SLPP) has commended the Free Health Care that was launched about a month ago, and called for sustainable support for the policy. “For now, DFID, UNFPA, the Global Fund and other donors are generously supporting the initiative under different programmes and projects. We need to be clear on the future costs of the policy and the sources of financing,” said SLPP Chairman John Benjamin. Read: Awoko
CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE): DRC Refugees Vulnerable to Rape
AFP reported on 3 June that according to a humanitarian coordinator for UNFPA, Isaac Wadbrind Madress, UNFPA is registering "more and more sexual and gender-based violence committed in the 92 places where refugees have settled in Congo (Brazzaville), mostly along the Oubangui river, after fleeing the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Equateur Province. Congolese officials estimate that there are about 120,000 refugees, who all arrived since last October. UNFPA is working on the ground "to avoid complications for the victims" of sexual assault and is engaged in preventive measures, though nobody has a figure for the number of rape cases. "It's young girls and women who are not protected and are victims of these barbaric acts," according to Madress. "There are cases of rape perpetrated by refugees themselves, but also by the local population." Read: AFP