For weeks, Dr. Bakari Omary has been hearing the same refrain.
Contraceptives are needed — and in many cases, they’re needed desperately. But across Omary’s native Tanzania, those contraceptives are becoming harder to find.
That’s due to not just the unraveling of USAID, but from the U.S. government’s slated incineration of $9.7 million in contraceptives. The State Department has declined to provide an update on whether those contraceptives have actually been torched. And as a result, it’s unclear whether Tanzania’s share — which accounts for nearly 30% of the country’s annual need — will ever reach the women who depend on them.
“Women are saying, doctors, if you don’t give us a contraceptive, we are going to get pregnant,” said Omary, a project coordinator at UMATI, a reproductive health-focused organization in Tanzania. “[They say] we have no choice. We can’t stop our husbands.”
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
