Problem Targeted

• Women and Girls’ Mental Health: In the Central African Republic (CAR), conflicts and civil wars between rebel groups (such as Séléka rebels, the Anti-Balaka militia, and the Central African Armed Forces) have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection—particularly women and girls who were sexually assaulted by armed groups. Assaulted women and girls are left with significant impacts on their physical and psycho-social well-being.
• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Armed conflicts in CAR have destroyed government infrastructure, including health facilities, leaving millions of Central Africans without access to healthcare services. Thus, access to sexual and reproductive health & rights (SRHR) information and services remains largely unavailable among internally displaced women and girls.
• Communicable and Non-communicable Disease: Women and girls in CAR also face significant rates of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS, waterborne disease outbreaks, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Approach Implemented

• Mental Health Interventions: Voix Pour les Femmes d’Afrique Centrale (VPFAC) conducts capacity building trainings towards filling mental healthcare gaps. For example:

  • Community health workers are trained on the use of smartphone apps to refer vulnerable people to mental health services
  • Healthcare providers are trained on mental health screening, psychotherapy, group counseling, music therapy, address mental health stigma, and more
  • Community-based women groups (which include social workers, activists, and volunteers) are trained on the rapid reporting of victims of post-traumatic stress disorder and sexual and gender based violence, to institutions that may provide assistance

• SRHR Interventions: VPFAC—in partnership with government, civil society organizations, law enforcement agencies, and other stakeholders—works to improve SRHR outcomes (e.g. HIV/AIDS infections, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexual violence), by:

  • Creating awareness of the prevention of sexual violence and the rights of young survivors
  • Strengthening the legal and policy framework to prevent and respond to sexual violence against young women and girls
  • Providing comprehensive support and care for young survivors of sexual violence
  • Improving the response and support mechanisms for young survivors
  • Implementing strategies that reduce maternal mortality caused by unsafe abortions
  • Raising awareness of legal abortion services and their benefits
  • Providing safe and legal abortion services through community health centers, clinics, and mobile outreach services
  • Strengthening the capacity of healthcare providers to provide quality abortion services

• Disease Control Interventions: VPFAC is implementing various interventions targeting communicable and non-communicable diseases, such as:

  • Training community health workers (CHWs) and community activists on managing communicable and non-communicable diseases
  • Conducting research studies to assess disease incidence and community needs for disease prevention
  • Engaging vulnerable young people and other key stakeholders towards gathering information on the challenges of epidemic disease surveillance and the increase in waterborne outbreaks
  • Analyzing collected data to identify key findings and create recommendations for action
  • Disseminating findings and recommendations to relevant stakeholders and the general public, to raise awareness and inform policy as well as program development, such as for improving epidemic or outbreak surveillance
  • Providing trainings and useful resources on pandemic preparedness and response to dozens of institutions (including government, civil society organizations, and private health institutions), to better meet operational needs during outbreaks