Kuala Lumpur May 28-30th
The world forum on women’s reproductive health and women’s rights through the eyes of Maya Kumanova, chair of IPPF’s youth network – YSAFE
Between 28 and 30th May in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the third Women Deliver conference was held. Women 
Deliver is a global advocacy organization which aims to gain political and financial support in its struggle for improving women’s rights and reproductive health and in particular, to put into effect the fifth article of the present Millennium Development Goals which concerns improvement of mothers’ health through universal access to reproductive health and services.
As a long-term BFPA and IPPF’s European youth network - YSAFE volunteer, I was fortunate to receive a grant to participate in Women Deliver and be included among the top 100 young leaders of the conference. The grant also included a two-month long course on the subject. The online course, based on the Schoology platform, contained weekly topics, discussions and tasks and serves as a good example how social networks and contemporary technology can be used for comprehensive and accessible education. This is a method, well-known to BFPA and was used in the H-CUBE project and the construction of a digital e-learning platform for health educators and in particular for educating teachers, health specialists and health mediators on issues concerning HIV, hepatitis B and C.
Women Deliver is an event at which over 5000 activists for a wide range of causes gathered to discuss women’s rights and different aspects of reproductive health. The extensive agenda gave me an opportunity to observe and participate in a large number of discussions and learn from the experience of a multitude of projects and organizations. The schedule included sessions with the participation of Tarya Halonen (Finland’s first female president), the Norwegian princess Mette-Marie, Melinda Gates, Hans Rosling, Chelsea Clinton, as well as the director general of IPPF Tewodros Mellese.
As one of the founders of the YSAFE project “I Heart Being a Girl”, in which BFPA also took an active part, I was proud to participate in a panel on how social networks can help and advocate and stand for sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially for youth and young girls. Within the panel we discussed the influence of the social networks with young Y-PEER activists, the American Family Planning Association and also with representatives of different media and Internet-based organizations. But BFPA’s and IPPF’s success story does not stop there. Together with IPPF, Astra and the European parliamentary forum we took part in a panel, focused on Eastern European and Central Asian development. Among the presented topics was the study on practices and attitudes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which in Bulgaria was conducted by BFPA.
One of the inspiring stories I heard was shared by Laura Stachel. After working as an obstetrician in Nigeria and witnessing the devastating effects of the lack of electricity and light at the local hospitals, Laura “teams up” with her husband and together they create a briefcase, containing a mobile mini-electrical system powered by solar panels which gives light and electricity for the basic functions at hospitals, thus saving many lives. After the successful implementation and a growing demand for this system Laura founded the “We Solar” foundation and to this moment it has provided over 300 “solar” briefcases in 25 countries.
The conference was extremely colorful, inspiring and impressive and I really hope we can put the acquired knowledge and the lessons learned to a good practical use.
Left: The “Girl Effect” tree – Contains 250 wooden “leaves”, on which young girls between 10 and 19 years of age have written down their dreams. The leaves also contain an audio recording which allows the visitors to hear the voice and the wishes of the girls in their native language. Source: Women Deliver
