Portugal’s Secretary of State for Citizenship and Gender Equality Portugal, Catarina Marcelino, recently visited the Vera Cruz Health Center (VCHC) to learn more about family planning services for women in Timor-Leste.
Following the visit, she said the implementation of Timor-Leste’s family planning program had made positive progress due to the cooperation and good working relationship between Timor-Leste and international agencies.
“I see that there is big progress. We used to be concerned about the contraceptive materials but through the support of international agencies, the government has created a proper system for children and maternal health and family planning,” she said.
She added that family planning was very important in helping women control their pregnancies and improve maternal health outcomes.
Meanwhile, Director of Vera Cruz Health Center Dulce Tilman said she was proud that the Ministry of Health and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) had selected the center for Marcelino’s visit.
She said the service was now available Monday to Friday and client numbers were continuing to increase daily.
“In one year we assist 600 people and they mostly prefer to use modern contraceptives such as the injection, implant, IUD and the pill,” she said.
She said there were no issues regarding the quality of contraceptives as all materials and equipment was provided by UNFPA.
UNFPA Timor-Leste representative John M. Pile said Portugal is the main donor for the agency’s global family planning program.
Since 1999, he said UNFPA had been providing 100% of all contraceptives to the Timorese government to help ensure more people had access to reproductive and family health services.
“Every year, the UNFPA allocates $1 million for the purchase of [contraceptive] materials and provides technical assistance such as developing training topics and providing training to staff,” he said.
The result of the program’s implementation would be announced once the the Demographic and Health Survey is completed later this year.
Prior to the visit the Vera Cruz Health Center, Pile also visited the Autonomous Service of Medicines and Health Equipment (SAMES) to check on the condition of the warehouse and the distribution system for contraceptives.
