PIP: Four participants of the second Regional Technical Committee Meeting on Sustainable Community-Based FP/MCH Project with Special Focus on Women comment on the situation of health and women in their countries. Daisy Faller, Provincial Family Planning Coordinator in Batangas Province, Philippines, mentioned the existence of a pre-implementation phase project to enlighten women in her country of 85% Roman Catholics. Shamina Hasan, Deputy Director of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh heralded an integrated approach to healthcare in which steering committees of fifteen volunteer women each involve communities and use local resources, people, and facilities to disseminate information. Dr. Do Trong Hien, Director of the Department of MCH/FP, Ministry of Health, Vietnam, notes an acute problem of lower reproductive tract infections in rural areas, widespread female unmet demand for contraception, and a desire among females to delay marriage. Research and follow-up monitoring and supervision are needed to complement family planning program efforts targeted mainly to women, but funds are limited. Dr. Phonethep Pholsena, Director of the Birth Spacing Project and Director of the Institute of Mother and Child Health in Laos describes a 123/1000 live birth rate of infant mortality, maternal mortality rate at 653/100,000 live births, and TFR at 6.9. The birth spacing project focusing upon one municipality of Vientiane seeks to reduce TFR to 4.0, space pregnancies by at least two years, promote later marriage up to 18 years for women, and discourage pregnancy after age 35. The project is in an area where 86% of married women of reproductive age have unmet needs and poor knowledge of contraceptives and female genital function.