Guardian blog profiles work of Brazilian family planning organization

"In the 1990s, when the U.S. shifted its aid policy away from family planning, and from Latin America, the Brazilian NGO Bemfam found itself with a yearly funding hole of $2 million," the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" reports in a profile of the NGO and family planning in Brazil. But the organization, which focuses on family planning and sexual and reproductive health, used $3 million in drawback funding from USAID to "set up a not-for-profit condom and lubricant business, Prosex," the newspaper writes. The company "has proved so successful that it generates around $4 million a year for the NGO -- about 40 percent of its funding -- and is the fifth most popular condom brand in Brazil," according to the newspaper. Bemfam "provides sex education to young people, promotes sexual and reproductive rights, and provides family planning services and counseling," the Guardian writes (Ford, 6/20).