Mission Statement
Pathfinder International believes that reproductive health is a basic human right. When parents can choose the timing of pregnancies and the size of their families, women's lives are improved and children grow up healthier.
Pathfinder International provides women, men, and adolescents throughout the developing world with access to quality family planning and reproductive health information and services. Pathfinder works to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, to provide care to women suffering from the complications of unsafe abortion, and to advocate for sound reproductive health policies in the U.S. and abroad.
Description
Since 1957, Pathfinder International has maintained an unwavering belief in the right of women and families to have access to contraception and to quality reproductive health care. Pathfinder's founder Clarence Gamble, a pioneer in family planning and maternal health, introduced contraception to more than 60 developing countries, including some where Pathfinder is still engaged today.
Pathfinder works in remote locations, under the most difficult conditions, serving the most vulnerable people. We collaborate with governments, NGOs, and community- and faith-based organizations to make contraception available and provide the quality care needed to ensure safe childbirth and healthy families. Working in countries with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, we provide a continuum of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services and are expanding the integration of these services into reproductive health and family planning programs. Though controversial, we support safe abortion care in countries where it's legal, provide reproductive health services to commercial sex workers and adolescents, and advocate for sound reproductive health policies in the US and abroad.
Pathfinder's work focuses on overcoming barriers and is based on developing long-term relationships, not only with clients, but with entire communities. Working in traditional societies, we understand that changes in attitude and behavior must have the support of religious and community leaders, the guardians of local culture. We train doctors, nurses, midwives, traditional birth attendants, community-based health workers, and teachers. At the same time, we build the capacity of our partner organizations to make them stronger, more effective, and able to thrive independently once our support has ended.
