This brief article highlights the new initiative by Marie Stopes International (MSI), which is part of a Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium of four organizations formed in 1995. The new initiative will promote awareness about the need for reproductive health among refugees. Over 80% of refugees are women and children who fled a variety of disasters only to be at high risk from sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections, and the effects of unintended and unsafe pregnancies. The consortium members will work to increase donors' understanding of the health conditions of women and to significantly increase donor support for reproductive health initiatives. In addition to the role of advocacy, MSI will be introducing refugee services into its global network of reproductive health services. MSI gained experience in delivering reproductive health services in refugee situations in the former Yugoslavia and among Mozambican refugees in Malawi. MSI is investigating sources of information from several countries about refugees' needs. The consortium is also collecting information on the most effective ways of delivering reproductive health services in refugee situations. The aim is to institutionalize reproductive health services into all humanitarian responses. MSI has developed refugee programs over the past 3 years in the former Yugoslavia, Malawi, Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone. MSI expects to establish projects in 1996 for refugees in Zaire, Guinea, and Mozambique. The numbers of displaced persons or refugees is continuing to increase worldwide, and there is a continued need to provide for these vulnerable communities.

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Demographic Factors Reproduction World Reproductive Health--women Population Dynamics Reproductive Medicine Emigration and Immigration refugee Transients and Migrants Delivery of Health Care population Migrants demography Article health Refugees migration health care delivery