ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND

Since 1957, Pathfinder International has worked worldwide to improve, and

increase the access to reproductive health and family planning programs for
women, men and adolescents, and in affecting policies to ensure sexual and
reproductive healthcare is a basic human right. With a mission to advance
sexual and reproductive health and rights globally by catalyzing change
locally, Pathfinder currently implements over 120 innovative programs in
over 25 countries. Our core areas are in contraception, maternal and
newborn health, and HIV and AIDS with planned intentional investment into
three growth areas of cervical cancer prevention, population, health and
environment, and safe abortion care, in recognition of their critical
significance to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Pathfinder strives
to strengthen access to family planning, ensure availability of safe abortion
services, advocate for sound reproductive health policies, and, through all of
our work, improve the rights and lives of the people we serve.
Pathfinder International has been working in India since 1999 to advance the
reproductive health needs of underserved and vulnerable populations. This
includes efforts to strengthen health systems, and to increase demand for
reproductive, maternal health, and family planning services. Since its
inception, Pathfinder has implemented over fifteen projects on family
planning, maternal and child health, and HIV and AIDS across Tamil Nadu,
Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Delhi.
Pathfinder engages closely with the government at the national and state
level to provide technical assistance to strengthen the reproductive health
program interventions. Pathfinder builds government and local capacity to
ensure scalable, sustainable programs, train health officials and front-line
health workers and providers to deliver quality health services, and
undertake advocacy initiatives to increase efficiency and effectiveness of
interventions.

KEY PROJECTS:
SALAMATI Health Strengthening reproductive maternal, neonatal
child health and adolescents services in Mewat region
SALAMATI is an intervention in Haryana s Mewat and Palwal districts to help
strengthen key components of the governments existing Reproductive
Maternal Neonatal Child Health + Adolescents (RMNCH+A) program. A
memorandum of cooperation between the state government in Haryana and
Pathfinder International was signed in September 2013 to implement the
project. The aim of the initiative is to improve the health and well-being of
women, their children and families by reducing early fertility through
changing social norms related to early child bearing and inadequate spacing.
For its part, Pathfinder will provide support for capacity building and
supportive supervision of frontline health workers that will help streamline
the contraceptive supply chain system to better serve communities. Under
the program, so far, training and communication materials and tools have
been finalized, facility assessment in project areas have been undertaken,
recruitment of Rehber-e-SALAMATI (male communicators) is done and five
days Training of Trainers (TOT) of ASHAs and Rehber-e-SALAMATI has been
accomplished.
MATRIKA Mother Harnessing private sector resources to support
India reach MDG5
Started in March 2013, MATRIKA is an intervention in Uttar Pradesh, the
largest state in India, with high incidences of maternal deaths, mostly
because of a lack of affordable and quality obstetric care and inadequate
health care facilities. MATRIKAs goal is to reduce maternal deaths in three
districts of Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, and Kannauj. In partnership with
World Health Partners (WHP), Pathfinder International aims to create a
network of affordable and high-quality health service providers and
functional referral centers (branded Sky Health Centers), who can also
connect rural clients to doctors in cities via telemedicine. The project also
strives to strengthen capacity of private and public sector health providers to
offer quality basic and emergency obstetric care, as well as improve
community awareness, about maternal health services among rural

populations. To date, 50 private health facilities (branded Sky Health Centers)

have been established in the project area, over 340 informal providers have
been trained on providing basic diagnostics and providing referrals, and over
800 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have been trained in
identifying danger signs, birth preparedness, and referring women to
services. The three year project will complete in February 2016 and is funded
by Merck for Mothers.
ANANYA Extraordinary Shaping Demand and Practice in Bihar for
Uptake of Priority Behaviors
Started in March 2011, ANANYA project aims to increase the demand and
practice of priority maternal and neonatal health behaviors in Bihar through
interpersonal and mass communication, information communication
technology, and community mobilization to empower individuals who
currently lack the information to make informed decisions about their health.
One of the key components of the program is the use of a multimedia service
called Mobile Kunji, which is a deck of cards that communicates health
messages to women, and an audio training course called "Mobile Academy"
for community health workers, on life-saving health behaviors. Through a
consortium led by BBC World Service Trust, Pathfinder is training front line
health workers in the effective use of Mobile Kunji and implementation of
Mobile Academy training course. Around 50,000 frontline health workers
have been trained so far under the project to support families in making
healthier decisions. Shaping Demand and Practice project is being supported
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
PRACHAR Dissemination Promoting Change in Reproductive
Behavior in Bihar
PRACHAR was one of the most successful and longest run projects to improve
the reproductive health status of adolescents and young couples in Bihar.
Started in 2001 and funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and
UNFPA, the innovative program successfully changed reproductive behaviors
of young couples and the social norms that pressure unmarried adolescents
into early marriage, early child bearing, and inadequate child spacing in
India. PRACHAR tested a government-non-governmental organization
partnership model to change youth reproductive behavior through education
on reproductive health and family planning by frontline government health
workers. PRACHAR has reached more than 84,000 married women and
63,000 unmarried adolescent girls and boys with reproductive health and

family planning information. In addition, PRACHAR has reached more than

16,500 unmarried adolescent girls and boys with training on adolescent
reproductive and sexual health. A comprehensive evaluation of PRACHAR
through its 10 years of implementation is being undertaken to assess its
impact, the sustainability of behavior change achieved, and the effectiveness
of scaling up the model through public-private partnerships.