The Georgetown University Medical Center’s Institute of Reproductive Health was the recipient of a $2.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in early December to fund a project focused on using fertility awareness-based family planning methods in sub-Saharan Africa.

The program, officially called the A3 Project: Expanding Family Planning Access, Availability and Awareness, is being led by IRH Director Victoria Jennings.

“The Gates Foundation asked us to write a proposal and we were awarded these funds,” Jennings said. This marked the first time the IRH has received funding from the Gates Foundation.

According to project manager Lauren Van Eck, while the program will officially start this coming November, work has already begun on the ground in Rwanda and Uganda to ensure that all local organizations understand the plan’s goals.

The initiative aims to accomplish its goal through a three-pronged approach, working with faith-based organizations to strengthen family planning services, promoting fertility awareness among women through the provision of mobile phones and educating youth about puberty through curricular education
While Jennings’ efforts are not unique in the international development community, she believes the IRH’s emphasis on promoting religiously motivated relief will prove particularly beneficial for local organizations that often lack necessary support.

“I think it is unique in that we’re working with some organizations particularly in our area of faith-based work that are often overlooked in the international development arena and helping them to strengthen them and help them do their work better,” Jennings said.

The IRH’s effort in sub-Saharan Africa is one part of a larger process of foreign assistance carried out by non-governmental organizations around the world.

“It’s all part of a whole concept of international development when you’re talking about providing technical support to strengthen local organizations to help them to achieve the goals of making a better life for the people that they serve,” Jennings said.

Jennings noted that the IRH’s technological capabilities and experience in the field allow the institute to play a vital role in the sub-Saharan relief effort.

“The idea is that we at the IRH have a lot of technical expertise, research capacity and the ability to manage projects in the field by helping local organizations carry out work that is consistent with their mission,” Jennings said.

Katrine Andrews (NHS ‘17) was impressed by the project’s ability to give previously underserved populations equal access to basic reproductive health tools.

“I think it’s a really interesting project. It’s a very Georgetown thing to do, especially with the faith mechanism,” Andrews said. “If we think of something so arbitrary as family planning, yet people from other places probably don’t think about that as a possibility. I think it gives a lot of opportunity.”