Marie Stopes Sierra Leone started providing services in 1986 and is one of the oldest programmes in the Marie Stopes International partnership.

They have a long and proud history in the country and are known locally as “de mammy fo welbodi” or “the mother of health”. The programme continued to work through both the decade long civil war (the only NGO to do so) and the 2015 Ebola outbreak.

Their challenges

The country continues to face many challenges: life expectancy is just 45 and the country has one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality.

They one of the largest family planning organisation in the country, with teams working in every one of the country’s 14 districts and providing more than half of all contraception.

Despite all of the progress in the country, just 21% of women aged 15-49 are using a method of modern contraception.

They keep working to ensure that all women and couples, particularly the poorest and hardest to reach, can access the full range of affordable modern contraceptive services to enable them choose the most appropriate method to meet their needs.

They provide short-term, long-term and permanent methods of contraception, as well as maternal and child health services, testing and treatment of STIs and laboratory services.