Pathfinder International

05/29/2026

Vincent Aseme Talasi, 42, is a father to six children. His wife, Mila Kunzulu, gave birth to their youngest just a week and a half ago. Meanwhile, their eldest is preparing to attend nursing school—15 kilometers away from their village in the K**a health zone of Kwilu Province, DRC.

Vincent was already feeling the financial strain from his first child’s tuition fees, and he had five more educations to budget for… in addition to providing clean water and sufficient food to his growing family every day. What would it be like to keep this up until his youngest was grown? In another five years, would this new baby still be his youngest child? Or would there be more siblings to follow?

One day, when Vincent attended a family planning awareness session in his village, something clicked.

See how the SANRU-Pathfinder consortium reaches couples like Vincent and Mila with access to contraceptive care and counseling through an innovative mobile strategy: https://bit.ly/43zWNxj

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Vincent Aseme Talasi, 42, is a father to six children. His wife, Mila Kunzulu, gave birth to their youngest just a week and a half ago. Meanwhile, their

05/27/2026

Across the plains of Northern Tanzania, pastoralist families in Monduli, Kiteto, and Simanjiro depend on livestock, mobility, and the natural environment for survival. Yet today, climate change, prolonged droughts, floods, population growth, and expanding agriculture are placing unprecedented pressure on these fragile ecosystems. For many families, a single health emergency or economic shock can mean selling precious livestock—their main source of livelihood—pushing them deeper into poverty and threatening their future.

To break this cycle, the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) Northern Tanzania Rangelands Project introduced an innovative Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) approach that goes beyond temporary aid. By integrating economic empowerment, community health, education, and environmental conservation, MACP is building stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities from the ground up.

05/26/2026

Obstetric fistula is a devastating condition that causes physical and psychological trauma for the women who endure it. Yet the condition is completely preventable through timely access to high-quality emergency obstetric care.

As Pathfinder's Ritah Waddimba writes this compelling op-ed:

"Delays in identifying a misaligned fetus, poor management of difficult labor, and hesitant or poorly executed surgical decisions directly translate into preventable structural injuries.

From a health systems perspective, obstetric fistula is the ultimate diagnostic indicator of a breakdown in quality."

Pathfinder's programme has supported 48 women to access fistula repair and care. These women have regained their health, dignity, and the opportunity to participate fully in their communities.

The op-ed calls for policymakers and partners to institutionalize standardized emergency obstetric training, strengthen clinical governance through on-site mentorship and rigid quality assurance systems, and scale up investments in women’s health.

We must ensure no woman ever leaves a health facility with a life altering injury caused by a gap in clinical skills.

Read the op-ed: https://bit.ly/4u3sTwh

Picture: Agaba received treatment at a fistula repair camp in Mubende, Uganbda, hosted by EMPOWERUg.

05/21/2026

You're invited! Join Population Services International, ThinkPlace Global Network, Orpesi Collective, RAES, A360, Jhpiego, JSI and Pathfinder International for our upcoming webinar:

Capturing What Matters: A Human-Centered Design Documentation Guide Launch Webinar & Conversation with Co-authors
Date: Tuesday 16 June 2026
Time: 4:00 PM East Africa / 3:00 PM South Africa / 2:00 PM West Africa / 9:00 AM Eastern

Register: https://bit.ly/3RlEzNc

Great HCD work is happening across global public health and development every day. Too much of it never gets documented, and the field loses something every time that happens.

Participate in the launch of a new guide: Capturing What Matters -- a practical tool to help you capture your process, share what you learned, and contribute to a stronger collective knowledge base for HCD in our sector.

Join the co-authors for a one-hour webinar where we'll walk through the guide, discuss the challenges of documentation, and share examples from practitioners doing it well. We'll also look at how to keep HCD knowledge and the community active in this time of contracting funding.

05/20/2026

Anissa Fataou and her husband, Soumana, live with their four children in Harikanassou village in Niger’s Dosso region. Although married for 12 years, Anissa and Soumana found it difficult to communicate openly about family planning. Like many other couples in rural Niger, their perceptions of family planning were shaped by myths and misinformation.

See how Pathfinder's J-Matassa project reached Anissa and Soumana with reproductive health care and tools for couples' communication:

Anissa Fataou and her husband, Soumana, live with their four children in Harikanassou village, located in the Boboye health district of Niger’s Dosso region. Although married for 12 years, Anissa and Soumana found it difficult to communicate openly about family planning. Like many other couples in...

05/19/2026

Last week, Pathfinder International’s Board of Directors and senior leadership team visited Uganda, stopping at Ndejje Health Center IV to learn more about Pathfinder Uganda’s work and engage directly with frontline health workers and communities.

The visit provided an opportunity to experience how strengthened health systems are improving access to sustained health services for women, young people, and underserved communities. The day concluded with a staff engagement session at our office, creating space for teams to connect, reflect, and share experiences from across our programs and partnerships in Uganda.

We are grateful to the health workers, partners, and teams whose commitment continues to advance this work every day.

05/15/2026

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more women are striving to shape their futures: pursuing education, running businesses, and supporting their families. However, for many, something as fundamental as accessing family planning remains out of reach. Long distances to health facilities, transport costs, stockouts, and time constraints force women to delay or miss contraceptive appointments.

Expanding access to convenient, reliable family planning is therefore not just a health priority; it is central to women’s empowerment and broader development in the DRC. The self-injectable contraceptive is transforming what access can look like. By enabling women to administer the method themselves, when and where it suits them, self-injection removes many of the structural barriers that have historically limited uptake and continuation of contraception.

Through a multi-partner initiative led by Population Services International (PSI) and currently implemented across nine countries, Pathfinder International is supporting the scale-up of self-injectable DMPA-SC across the DRC. The Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC) project is supporting the government of the DRC to scale up self-injection across 401 health facilities in 14 health zones in Kwilu and Kassaï provinces.

Learn more about DISC:

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), more women are striving to shape their futures: pursuing education, running businesses, and supporting their

05/14/2026

Last week, our Oumar Onyango spoke to The Standard about how climate change impacts the health of women, girls, and outdoor workers:

"Whenever there is flooding and drought, families are forced to migrate for safety and food, making some to miss out on health care like hospital deliveries, an issue that results in death [...] Climate change is also worsening food insecurity and malnutrition. For example, smallholder farmers are facing unpredictable weather patterns, increased pest infestations, and changing w**d dynamics, all of which are affecting crop yields and food quality."

Read more about how climate change is impacting Africa and what it will take to safeguard the health of people and the environment: https://bit.ly/4wwMp6X

Experts warn that climate change is worsening Africa’s health crisis, driving rising cases of kidney disease, pregnancy complications and stillbirths.

05/10/2026

It takes a village to raise a child—and sometimes, it takes a village to help a mother safely deliver a baby. For pregnant women in rural parts of the world, timely transportation to a health facility can make the difference between life and death.

This is why Pathfinder International piloted the m-mama program, which is currently implemented by the Government of Tanzania with technical assistance from Pathfinder. In areas of Tanzania where ambulances are not readily available, the m-mama project is reducing maternal mortality through a network of local taxi drivers, who work around the clock to ensure that laboring mothers experiencing birth complications reach a health facility in time. Expectant mothers—or their families and neighbors—can call a toll-free number, speak to a trained dispatcher to assess their condition, and arrange for prompt emergency transport.

“I am thankful to the health care workers, the m-mama service, and the driver who acted so fast. If they had delayed, I don’t know what would have happened to me or my baby. They saved our lives,” said Furaha, a 30-year-old mother who started experiencing complications after hours of prolonged labor.

The community drivers of the m-mama network are proud of the part they play in supporting mothers through difficult births. Emid, a 43-year-old community driver said: “Being part of m-mama has changed my life. I feel proud knowing that my car is not just for transport, it is saving lives. When the dispatch center calls me, I know a family is depending on me. That responsibility makes me ready at any time. When I hear later that the mother delivered safely or that the baby is stable, my heart is full of happiness. It reminds me that what we do as community drivers truly matters."

On this Mother's Day, as we honor and celebrate the mothers in our lives, we're also immensely grateful to our partners and allies in the fight to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. From all of us at Pathfinder, happy Mother's Day!

05/07/2026

Our first episode of Women&Co by Pathfinder's new podcast - The Springboard - is live! The Springboard hosts intergenerational conversations between women leaders and founders actively working to transform the systems that don't work for women.

In this deeply engaging episode, hosted by Pathfinder's Madiha Latif, Kate Roberts and Suha Lalani share how deeply entrenched norms and systemic gaps still hinder progress for women around the world.

Kate shares her journey traveling the world, witnessing disparities firsthand and founding coalitions and enterprises to address those disparities — like The Body Agency Collective. Suha recounts her personal loss and systemic failures that motivated her to build PinkDetect — the first AI-powered breast health app for women in Pakistan.

The episode shows us that we must design solutions rooted in real community needs, with women's agency, trust, and leadership at the center.

Stream the full episode of The Springboard and follow us on Spotify: https://bit.ly/4tlQYhC

YouTube: https://bit.ly/4uTUxNh

05/05/2026

Safe delivery begins with listening, dignity, and making the right decision at the right time. For laboring mothers in rural areas of the world, the timely intervention of midwives saves lives.

In Panga, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Midwife Bénedicte Mukwa Sansele is one such lifeline to pregnant women. Women from five different villages travel to Panga to give birth. Upon arrival, Bénédicte carefully examines each woman—for even the slightest signs of risk, Bénédicte provides immediate referrals to the hospital, which is more than 15 kilometers of difficult terrain away from Panga. These early referrals ensure that pregnant women have enough time to reach the hospital safely.

On this International Day of the Midwife, we honor and celebrate the vigilance, dedication, and expertise of women like Bénédicte. Below, see why Pathfinder leaders call for greater investment in midwives for improved maternal health outcomes.


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