News

The Dutch Postcode Lottery announced on 26 January 2016 that we could again count on an annual grant of € 900,000 for 2016. The Dutch Postcode Lottery is able to award a record figure of € 328 million to over 100 charities thanks to its 2.7 million participants. We are very grateful.

Based on the findings and reflections of 10 years implementing Rutgers’ CSE programs in November 2015 a meeting was organized in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss the way forward to upscaling and sustainability with Master Trainers and coordinators of Rutgers’ CSE programs in 9 African and Asian countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana and Malawi.

Rutgers (and the SRHR alliance) were present at the International conference on Family Planning 2016 (ICFP). You could have metseveral colleagues and share experiences, discuss research findings, review approaches and connect with them. ICFP took place from 25-28 January 2016 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

What can we do to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of refugees and displaced people? This was the central question at the round table meeting on 12 January with Dutch organizations in the field of development, humanitarian aid and SRHR, organized by Rutgers, KIT Health and Share-Net International.

In 'Young and in Control' 7 young people from different countries in Africa and Asia show the importance of the active participation of themselves and their peers in the ASK programme. This online report is intended to inspire and encourage young people to stay or become involved in programmes that affect themselves, and to motivate adults to work with young people. Get inspired!

On November 27, a gunman opened fire at the Planned Parenthood health center in Colorado Springs. The attack was motivated by opposition to Planned Parenthood and access to safe and reliable health care. Rutgers supports Planned Parenthood. Do you, as well? Please, sign their petition.

The innovative programme MenCare+ will receive a follow-up grant for Prevention+. Liliane Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, is making funds available from FLOW II (Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women). Prevention+ focusses on involving (young) men in order to reduce violence against women, and to improve the economic participation and self-sufficiency of women.

Humanitarian aid needs to transform in order to protect and advance sexual and reproductive health and rights in emergency situations like war and natural disasters. That is the message of the UNFPA State of World Population report 2015, which was launched by UNFPA and Rutgers on 3 December 2015 in The Hague.

Refugees need safety, food and shelter, but to what extent are their sexual and reproductive health and rights met? These and other questions are still largely unanswered, even though the number of people in humanitarian settings has almost doubled in the past decade. Every day, 507 women and adolescent girls die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth in emergency situations and in fragile states.

In 2013, Rutgers conducted a study to investigate the sexual health of lesbian women, gay men, bisexual men and women and trans people in the Netherlands. Nearly 5,000 people participated in this first nation-wide study amongst these groups.