Lafiya Nigeria Awarded Grant to Expand Family Planning Access in Kano State
KANO, Nigeria - December 5, 2024 - Lafiya Nigeria, known in-country as Samu Lafiya Initiative for Development, is excited to announce that it has received a transformative grant from the Gates Foundation to expand its operations into Kano State, Nigeria. This milestone underscores a shared commitment to empowering women with life-saving contraceptive options and reproductive healthcare, particularly in underserved communities. Specifically, this grant aims to address the challenges of the lack of trained family planning personnel, contraceptive stockouts at the community level, and misconceptions and low levels of contraceptive use within Kano.
This funding from the Foundation will enable Lafiya Nigeria to scale our innovative community-based approach, bringing contraceptive counselling and access to products and services closer to women in remote areas of Kano. Through our trusted network of community health workers – the Lafiya Sisters – and by building partnerships with healthcare providers and policymakers, we aim to empower thousands of women with informed reproductive choices. The Honourable Kano State’s Commissioner of Health, Abubakar Labran Yusuf, welcomed Lafiya Nigeria’s entry into the state, emphasizing the significance of this collaboration by stating:
"Maternal health remains a top priority for Kano State, and we are excited to collaborate with Lafiya Nigeria to address the unmet need for family planning, especially in reaching the last-mile in rural areas. This partnership aligns perfectly with our ongoing efforts to domesticate family planning policies from the Federal Ministry of Health. We look forward to Lafiya Nigeria’s contributions to improving access to family planning services and strengthening our healthcare systems."
The Lafiya Nigeria team in a meeting with Kano Ministry of Health stakeholders including the Honourable Commissioner (middle, in white).
"This grant from the Foundation represents a significant opportunity to address challenges with supply stock-outs in Kano that hinder women from accessing family planning services," said Klau Chmielowska, Co-Executive Director of Lafiya Nigeria. "By prioritising consistent access to commodities, we are determined to ensure that women in Kano are empowered with the resources she needs to make informed choices about her health and future."
Additionally, Kano State’s Family Planning Coordinator noted that the state sees consistent statewide stockout of family planning commodities in government facilities, and Lafiya Nigeria will be a key partner organization working to secure supply of family planning commodities across the state. The Coordinator expressed optimism that this collaboration will fill critical gaps and directly address unmet needs for contraceptives across the region.
Lafiya Nigeria’s expansion into Kano will focus on strengthening healthcare delivery systems, enhancing the capacity of local health workers, and fostering collaboration with key stakeholders to ensure lasting impact. Through this grant, funds have been provided to recruit and upskill Lafiya Sisters in family planning counseling and procure DMPA-SC (“Sayana Press” and transport it to local communities. By late 2025, this project aims to provide 15,000 women in Kano with one year of contraceptive coverage by distributing 60,000 units of DMPA-SC. As Lafiya Sisters are the nexus between health facilities and rural communities, their work will ensure that every woman, regardless of her location or economic status, has access to family planning resources.
The first trained Lafiya Sisters of Kano State, alongside the Lafiya Nigeria team and government stakeholders.
About Lafiya Nigeria:
Lafiya Nigeria, known locally as the Samu Lafiya Initiative for Development, is a pioneering healthcare organization dedicated to transforming access to family planning and reproductive health services in underserved communities across Nigeria. Entirely community-centred, Lafiya Nigeria connects women to life-saving contraceptives through its network of trained health workers – the Lafiya Sisters – who provide counselling, commodities, and follow-up care directly at the grassroots level and in-facilities.