Events
Delivering Sexual Health and Reproductive Choice Programs - Melbourne Event
We are excited to announce our upcoming networking series in May 2025, focused on sexual health and reproductive choice programs. Access to equitable sexual and reproductive health and education services is a crucial aspect of the international development agenda, impacting gender equality, health, and overall well-being for women and girls.
We invite you to join us as we hear from speakers who are delivering Sexual & Reproductive health services in the Asia-Pacific and find out more about how their work underpins women’s choices and gender equality, supports sustainable development goals and breaks cycles of poverty.
Come along to meet other women in the sector, share a glass of wine and nibbles and make new connections.
Cost: FREE for WIAD Members, $25 for Supporters, $10 for Non-Member Students, interns and unwaged.
*Members will be sent a discount code for free access, please check your emails (including spam/junk mail).
*Once purchased, tickets are non-refundable.
Everyone is welcome, so please share this email with your friends and colleagues. Keep an eye on our website for details of the event.
Speakers
Grishma Bista
Grishma Bista is the newly appointed Executive Officer of MSI Asia Pacific, bringing more than a decade of leadership experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender equality and development. Grishma previously served as Country Director of MSI Timor-Leste, where she led the organisation through a period of extraordinary resilience and impact. Her career also spans leadership roles with Oxfam, CARE International, and the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA). Before assuming the Executive Officer role, Grishma served on the MSI Asia Pacific board for two years.
Throughout her career, Grishma has championed reproductive choice as foundational to social justice. Grishma’s global experience, perspective and background in public health shape her rights-based, community-driven approach to development. As Executive Officer, Grishma leads MSI Asia Pacific’s work to support local partnerships, advance policy and programmatic excellence, and ensure that reproductive health care reaches those who need it most across the Asia and Pacific regions.
Ana Orozco
Ana has been part of theBurnet Institue’s Young People’s Health Group for four years – she is dedicated to exploring young people's health in Australia through qualitative, co-design, and quantitative research methods. Her work primarily focuses on the needs of multicultural communities, advocating for menstrual health, and promoting sexual health, mental health, and overall well-being.
Projects include the Gist: a pornography education program to improve sexual health and wellbeing in young people and young people’s health in Australia: statistics from the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll survey. Whilst the projects are currently Australia-based, they have huge correlation to the needs in international development contexts.
Delivering Sexual Health and Reproductive Choice Programs - Sydney Event
We are excited to announce our upcoming networking series in May 2025, focused on sexual health and reproductive choice programs. Access to equitable sexual and reproductive health and education services is a crucial aspect of the international development agenda, impacting gender equality, health, and overall well-being for women and girls.
We invite you to join us as we hear from speakers who are delivering Sexual & Reproductive health services in the Asia-Pacific and find out more about how their work underpins women’s choices and gender equality, supports sustainable development goals and breaks cycles of poverty.
Come along to meet other women in the sector, share a glass of wine and nibbles and make new connections.
Cost: FREE for WIAD Members, $25 for Supporters, $10 for Non-Member Students, interns and unwaged, and $5 ONLINE. Link to be shared after registration.
*Members will be sent a discount code for free access, please check your emails (including spam/junk mail).
*Once purchased, tickets are non-refundable.
Everyone is welcome, so please share this email with your friends and colleagues. Keep an eye on our website for details of the event.
Speakers
Rachel Sandford
Rachel Sandford is a Program Manager on the International Team at Family Planning Australia, where she leads projects across five countries focused on cervical cancer prevention, contraception access, and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). These initiatives are delivered through DFAT’s Australian NGO Cooperation Program and currently span eight active projects. Rachel has also worked in South East Asia on HIV and Maternal Child health programs.
Rachel also serves as the International Team’s Child Safeguarding Focal Point, ensuring child protection standards are embedded across all programs and partnerships.
She holds qualifications in communication, public health, and social work, combining interdisciplinary expertise with a deep commitment to equitable, rights-based approaches to sexual and reproductive health.
Nusrat Jahan
Health Advisor | SRHR Advocate
Nusrat Jahan is a passionate global health and international development professional. A doctor by training, she chose to pursue a career doing the work that matters to her the most: public health and social justice. Having experienced firsthand how a lack of timely and accurate information can impact one’s ability to realise their sexual and reproductive health and rights, she has spent over a decade advocating for health equity across South-East Asia and the Pacific.
A proud feminist and strong advocate for gender equality, Nusrat’s work centres on inclusion, local ownership and breaking down barriers to access. She believes health information should be easily accessible, empowering and culturally relevant. Her experience ranges from developing puberty booklets and consent education videos for Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) youth in Australia, to supporting comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and designing holistic health interventions with a life course approach that upholds the right to health in the Pacific.
Outside of work, she enjoys experimenting with watercolour and charcoal, trying out new recipes and a competitive board game night.
Dr. Telma Costa
Dr. Telma Costa is a Portuguese Medical Oncologist currently working as a Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. She has been deeply involved in the Elimination Partnership in the Indo-Pacific for Cervical Cancer (EPICC) program, where she leads activities in the treatment space and supports the program's implementation in Timor-Leste. Additionally, Dr. Costa heads the technical team responsible for developing the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Cervical Cancer in Australia.
With over 10 years of experience in oncology, Dr. Costa is a clinician by background, who has previously spent time in Angola and Cape Verde, in Sub-Saharan Africa, where she supported the development of decentralized oncology units, further deepening her commitment to global cancer care.
Dr. Costa is also a passionate advocate for patient-centred healthcare, strongly supporting the active involvement of patients throughout the cancer care pathway. She is an active member of the Patients’ Advocacy Working Group within the Portuguese Society of Oncology, as well as the Patient Partners Group of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).
Save the date 2025
Join us for our upcoming events!
Dates and venues to be confirmed!
International Women’s Day March 4 “March forward: Turn Promises into Progress”
May 2025 Supporting Reproductive Choice and Healthcare
July 2025 Online event :Young Professionals Guide to the Sector
October 2025 Topic TBA
Canberra events.
Melbourne events.
Brisbane Events.
Sydney events.
Adelaide events.
Become a volunteer.
We are always looking for people to become a part of our events in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and online. Our volunteers assist in finding speakers, venues and sharing event invitations. If this sounds like something you'd like to get involved with, we'd love to hear from you.