The Maries Stopes International will contribute $15 million to provide sexual reproductive healthcare services and family-planning products and services to Vietnam. The services are expected to help create 5.5 million CYPs (Couple Years of Protection) for more than 8 million people by the end of 2015, the organization said. The CYP is the estimated protection provided by a particular contraceptive method (such as an intra-uterine device or an oral contraceptive) during a one-year period. CYP is used to measure program performance, and is calculated from data that programs routinely collect. It reflects distribution and is a way to estimate coverage and not actual use or impact, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which uses the measurement. Last year, Marie Stopes in Vietnam contributed 2.1 million CYPs. More than 800,000 unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions were prevented, resulting in $30 million in savings for families and society, according to the organization. The investments for the CYP effort come from businesses in Vietnam and support from overseas and in-country donors, as well as corporate partners. Marie Stopes International works with Vietnam’s General Office for Population and Family Planning to deliver family planning and sexual reproductive healthcare services as well as capacity-building for local-service providers in nearly 30 provinces in Vietnam. (Vietnam News April 21)
