FAMILY PLANNING, SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, HIV/AIDS PREVENTION AND EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES REGARDING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
Aktion Regen
- 32 years of practical knowledge transfers
- 5 Big Rain Tools for taboo-free education of family planning and sexual and reproductive health
- more than 800 trained Rain Workers
- Projects in 10 African countries (Senegal, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Mali, Sambia)
- more than 600.000 people received valuable information regarding family planning since 2009
Aktion Regen works together with local partner organizations to conduct knowledge transfer workshops regarding family planning.
We work with Rain Workers, members of the local community, who we provide with sexual and reproductive health and family planning training. These people act as multipliers, carrying the knowledge they acquired into different communities, schools and health care facilities.
By training people who share with others what they have learned, we are able to have a far larger impact. Our Rain Workers pass on the tools needed to live a self-determined life, and the opportunity family planning presents, to secure a brighter future.
KNOWLEDGE AS OPPORTUNITY
We share knowledge about family planning, sexual and reproductive health, HIV / AIDS prevention and FGM.
Our goal is to share knowledge with people who have had few educational opportunities, in order for them to make the most informed decisions regarding their lives and to enable them to escape from poverty.
Family planning is key to having a self-determined life. By providing access to family planning, we give each person the tools to decide for themselves what their own future should look like. Sharing this message with as many people as we can, is at the core of our mission at Aktion Regen.
Dr. Maria Hengstberger developed 5 easily comprehensible educational tools, that make information easy to understand and share with others, visible, and literally tangible.
Our 5 Big Rain Tools illustrate the female menstrual cycle, provide a representation of the female reproductive organs (thereby removing them from taboo-status), raise awareness on family planning, and explain the health implications of female genital mutilation and why it must be considered a human rights violation.
dr. med. maria Hengstberger
“Sharing knowledge with others means sharing freedom”, is the motto of Dr. Hengstberger, the gynaecologist who founded Aktion Regen in 1989.
During a work trip to Ethiopia, she witnessed first-hand the hardships many people, especially women, faced. In response she developed the concept: knowledge as a chance.
The word “Regen” (English: Rain) symbolizes the continuous support Aktion Regen provides through its knowledge transfer programmes. In line with the motto “water to the roots”, knowledge is seen as giving people the possibility to live a more self-determined life.
FAMILY PLANNING FOR A GOOD LIFE, FOR EVERYONE
Aktion Regen’s goals are in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 Agenda.
By providing quality education (Goal 4) regarding sexual and reproductive health and family planning we can establish better health and well-being for all (Goal 3) and promote gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls (Goal 5). Local partnerships provide opportunities (Goal 17) that help achieve the first sustainable development goal, namely global poverty reduction (Goal 1).
We cannot expect women to give birth until they die from it. We cannot afford that in our humanity.
I have been following Dr. Hengstberger’s commitment for a very long time and I am delighted to see that great things have developed from the original idea. May you all continue to put so much energy into these ideas and their implementation!
All the best,
Monika (Email, October 2020)
Enabling access to family planning not only increases individual’s autonomy, it is also the answer to many of the economic, social, demographic, and environmental issues of our time.
It is important to note culture, tradition, and religion when undertaking development work, as these factors determine individual’s lives and responses to new information. Aktion Regen works with local Rain Workers to share information that is accessible, suitable to cultural contexts and understandable.
Maria has always told us “grab your future”. I am proud to be a Rain Worker and to spread the knowledge on family planning. It is for our future!
The more women who receive knowledge regarding fertility and childbirth, and thus can make informed decisions and take their lives in their own hands, the easier it is for prosperity, gender equality, violence prevention, and overall peace to be established. Family planning is key to a self-determined life. Passing this message on to all women and girls and raising awareness regarding family planning is at the core of our mission at Aktion Regen.
Become a project partner of Aktion Regen!
Aktion Regen has gained project and training experience in many countries in East and West Africa over the past 30 years. New partner countries and partner organisations are constantly being added, and new project designs for imparting existential knowledge are constantly being developed together.
We always work together with local organisations, schools, institutions, etc. or with international NGOs that have established projects in a region. Capacity building is an essential cornerstone of our sustainable work ethic — the knowledge of our educational programme “knowledge as a chance” has to be brought permanently into the societies and established there for independent dissemination.
If you would like to coöperate with Aktion Regen, we can train your team on the following topics: sexual and reproductive health, education / contraception / family 
planning, HIV/AIDS prevention, FGM — risks and prevention — please contact us.
Please contact Dr. Ines Kohl, Secretary General and overall programme manager, at the Head Office: ines.kohl@aktionregen.at, ++43 / 1 / 720 66 20.
We look forward to meeting you as a new project partner!
Contact
If you have questions, suggestions or recommendations please don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!