Improving the quality of health services in remote areas of Mali

Mariam Diarra is one of 49 UN Community Volunteer Midwives improving the quality of health services in community health centres in six rural communities of Mali. She serves with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which supports the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs to improve the accessibility and quality of reproductive health services.

Mariam Diarra is one of the 49 UN Community Volunteer Midwives recruited by UNFPA to improve the quality of health services in community health centres located in six rural communities in Mali — Koulikoro, Ségou, Sikasso, Mopti, Gao and Timbuktu. The programme aims to achieve three key outcomes: zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet needs for family planning and zero gender-based violence and other harmful practices, such as child marriage.

Challenging the inequalities people living with HIV/AIDS face

An anxious crowd and deafening silence. People with masks are being called into a clinic cube with an ambiguous sign reading “Immune Deficiency.” This ten-square metre safe house is where people living with HIV meet. As a UN Volunteer Programme Assistant with UNAIDS in China, Weng Huiling shares their stories and fights for their rights.

Weng provides strategic information, advocacy and technical support to coordinate stakeholders to deliver comprehensive life-saving HIV service. She focuses on technical and administrative support to programmes and coordinates partners from the Government, private sector and local communities.