Letter from Chris Purdy:
Dear Friend of DKT,
September was a busy month at DKT, as we rolled out new education campaigns and continued to expand access to contraception. Our goal is to make birth control methods more widely available and affordable, so that every woman can choose the method that works best for her.
September 26th marked World Contraception Day, which focuses on the need to increase young people's access to birth control. Young and unmarried women often face discrimination when they seek out birth control, which is why DKT develops youth oriented programming and fights for young people's right to access reproductive healthcare.
Thank you for your support in helping people of all ages plan for their future and reach their full potential.
Christopher Purdy
President
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Building a Social Media Presence
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Sharing ads on YouTube and Facebook is a great way
to reach young people |
DKT was recently featured in an
article
in Social Media Insider that showcased DKT's extensive social media campaigns to promote birth control use. As more young people
around the world
gain internet access, social media is a
powerful tool for reaching adolescents and twenty-somethings. Several of our country programs have sophisticated social media campaigns,
with active Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts as well as their own websites to reach young people. Social media is especially effective in countries that ban contraceptive television ads.
Marketing our products with fun and often provocative commercials is a trademark of DKT, and expanding to social media allows us to share these commercials widely with youth. Check out our YouTube
channel
to watch some of our all-time favorite ads.
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Tracking out progress and keeping our results transparent is a high priority at DKT. To that end, we recently updated our website with this
report
detailing how and in which countries DKT generated CYPs as well as this
chart
showing the number of CYPs we generate per year and the cost per CYP. We are pleased to report that in 2015 we provided over 30 million CYPs at a cost of just $2.02 per CYP. For the past ten years, DKT has kept the cost of a CYP around $2.00.
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Reaching Teens in Nigeria
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DKT Nigeria recently launched a multimedia campaign targeted to young people
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DKT Nigeria has launched a multi-media campaign to raise awareness of modern birth control methods. Currently, only about 11% of Nigerian women use a modern contraceptive method, partly due to a lack of medically accurate information about hormonal contraception. As part of their efforts to connect with the younger demographic, DKT launched a new lifestyle website targeted to men and women between the ages of 18 and 34. The website,
honeyandbanana.com includes FAQs about sex, pregnancy and STI risk. The website also offers a guide to several methods of birth control that will help visitors find a method that fits with their lifestyle. In addition to this, website DKT Nigeria maintains an active social media presence on
Twitter and
Facebook to connect to young people.
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Utilizing For-Profit Strategies for Social Change
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DKT uses a wide range of retail spaces to increase access to birth control
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DKT has found that borrowing strategies from the for-profit sector can create long-lasting social impact. By piggybacking on existing retail outlets such as pharmacies, convenience stores, and kiosks, DKT is able to broaden its reach. As DKT's Phil Harvey explains in this Devex
article, shopkeepers profit from every sale and are therefore happy to sell our products, which keeps birth control as widely available as soft drinks and matches.
DKT also borrows the commercial sector's emphasis on branding and marketing. DKT has an unabashed approach to marketing birth control, which helps increase sales and challenge taboos about sex. Utilizing marketing and commercial operating techniques has helped DKT achieve a high number of couple years protection (CYPs) at a low cost.
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World Contraception Day
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Increasing young people's access to birth control is the focus of World Contraception Day
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September 26th marked World Contraception Day, which underscores the importance of increasing young people's
access to sex education, birth control, and reproductive health services, which is a high priority at DKT. For this reason, we are scaling up programs targeted to youth in several countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo.Our youth program in the DRC trains youth ambassadors to go door to door to talk about contraception options to their peers, while our youth program in Ghana provides a space for young people to come together to learn about sexual health.
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About DKT International
DKT International is a nonprofit organization that promotes family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention through social marketing.
DKT International
1701 K Street, N.W.
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20006
+1 202 223-8780
   
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