In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, PSI Laos launched the Women’s Health Project in 2011 to increase access to IUDs and other contraceptive methods. In 2012, one in four women in Laos had never heard of IUDs and more than half had never heard of the contraceptive implant. To change this reality, PSI Laos now works closely with the Ministry of Health, the Maternal and Child Health Center, the United Nations Population Fund and provincial health departments in 10 provinces to strengthen the capacity providers in the public and private sectors have to offer high-quality sexual and reproductive health services. PSI Laos supports the government to carry out training on sexual and reproductive healthcare in the public and private sectors, including clinical training on the insertion of IUDs and contraceptive implants, while advocating for increased access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare for women served in the private sector. These activities are all part of efforts by PSI Laos to gradually transition financial responsibility and activity ownership to the Ministry of Health.
PSI Laos improves knowledge of contraceptive methods so that women can make informed decisions about their reproductive health. This includes through Huk Mi Plan, an integrated digital ecosystem of sexual and reproductive health and rights resources that PSI Laos launched in 2019 in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The broad range of resources, including youth-friendly and engaging information via Facebook, the first Lao language sexual and reproductive health website and a series of 21 educational videos in four local ethnic languages, Lao Loum and English create a safe space for women and offers reproductive health counseling via an online messenger, a hotline and by linking them with trained, quality-assured providers. Thus far, the Huk Mi Plan Facebook page has established a community of over 20,000 followers. PSI Laos is also training government health educators on effective reproductive health interpersonal communication to ensure long-term sustainability and integration of sexual and reproductive health into national frameworks. From December 2018 to October 2019, 116,924 women were reached by a combination of PSI Laos and PSI Laos-trained government health educators in the public sector, with 50,308 referral cards distributed and 29,851 returned. Health educators also use these sessions to raise awareness about the new national health insurance scheme.