BY BENEDICT SICHALWE
 |
Hassan Mohamed with his wife Celina Saidi and their two-year-old
son Hasmiri Hassan. (Photo: Benedict Sichalwe) |
Hassan Mohamed (23) sits outside the family planning consultation room at Masasi district’s Mkomaindo hospital in Mtwara Region. He is waiting for his wife, Celina Said (21), who is inside the family planning consultation room.
Although he agreed to accompany her to the clinic, Mohammed thought it was not proper for him to enter the consultation room with her. But he can not wait to hear what the nurse is telling her. The couple want to space their children and four is the number of children they plan to have.
“To live a better life you need a maximum of four children,” says the father of two as he waits for his wife to come out of the consultation room.
Even though Mohamed should have joined his wife in the consultation room so they could be counseled together on family planning, his decision to accompany his wife to the clinic is a step in the right direction. Like they say, even a thousand miles’ journey begins with a single step. Very few men today accompany their wives to antenatal or postnatal clinic.
But his effort did not just come out of the blue. It is a result of sensitization campaigns by both local and international NGOs running projects to encourage men to get involved in family health, especially reproductive health and family planning.
These NGOs’ efforts are slowly yielding positive results. Today we can see a few men at mother and child health clinics which was not the case a few years ago. While this change of attitude is commendable, we still have a long way to go to ensure meaningful involvement of men in family planning services.
Unlike many men, Mohamed is usually eager to learn more about family planning but he normally depends on his wife for the information. His wife attends clinic every month when she goes for her monthly contraceptive pills.
“She shares all the information she gets from the clinic with me. She tells me about the various contraception methods like the injection, the pill, implants and condoms,” Mohamed says.
He and his wife have opted for the pill for the time being but would like to use a permanent method after they get their desired number of children.
“My wife is on the pill for now. We have decided to have four children because we cannot afford to maintain more than that given our poor economic status,” says Mohamed.
His wife Celina Bakari re-affirmed their commitment of having four children and stopping thereafter. “What my husband said is true. Our plan is to have four children. We want to plan our future. We need to take our children to good schools,” she said cuddling their two-year-old son Hasmiri Hassan.
Mohamed is among thousands of men who after sensitisation are eager to know about family planning. But given the deep-rooted culture where it is believed that family planning is a woman’s business, these men only get this information trough their wives.
According to Masasi District Reproductive and Child Health Coordinator (DRCHC), Christa Swalehe, initially it was difficult to find men at reproductive health centres despite attempts to encourage them to attend with their wives.
“But the situation is improving slowly. Nowadays you can see at least two men at the clinic. But when they come they stay outside or under the tree with the kids while their wives are being attended to. When a nurse starts providing health education to the women, some would come and listen and even ask questions,” says Christa.
But in most cases they would pretend to be busy with the children and not paying attention to what is being taught,” the reproductive health official says.
The project to involve men in reproductive health is run in collaboration with district officials and the community leaders. Sensitisation is done in gatherings, through peer educators and community action groups where men sensitise fellow men on family planning issues.
NGOs train health providers on how to provide male-friendly services. The trainings aim at helping healthcare providers come up with different ways of making family planning services more welcoming to men.
During health education programmes, women are encouraged to bring their partners along as well as when they come for consultation so that health officials can discuss family planning issues with both partners.
Among the most underserved group when it comes to family planning is the new generation of adolescents- who are sexually active but are excluded from reproductive health services.
They enter adulthood with inadequate information on sexuality and reproductive health and with little skills to protect their health and rights. Family planning services too often fail to reach the poor, those living in remote areas and urban slums and people who are less educated.
In 2010/11, Tanzania’s National Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan (NFPCIP) estimated a need of 19bn/- to progress towards achievement of 60 percent contraceptive prevalence by 2015.
The actual government commitment for family planning in 2010/11 was only 3bn/-, merely 16 percent of the estimated budgetary need. This is the lowest commitment for family planning in over 10 years.
This lack of funding threatens to derail family planning in Tanzania and prevents progress towards attainment of MDG 5 on reduction of maternal mortality by 75 per cent come 2015.
Although he agreed to accompany her to the clinic, Mohammed thought it was not proper for him to enter the consultation room with her. But he can not wait to hear what the nurse is telling her. The couple want to space their children and four is the number of children they plan to have.
“To live a better life you need a maximum of four children,” says the father of two as he waits for his wife to come out of the consultation room.
Even though Mohamed should have joined his wife in the consultation room so they could be counseled together on family planning, his decision to accompany his wife to the clinic is a step in the right direction. Like they say, even a thousand miles’ journey begins with a single step. Very few men today accompany their wives to antenatal or postnatal clinic.
But his effort did not just come out of the blue. It is a result of sensitization campaigns by both local and international NGOs running projects to encourage men to get involved in family health, especially reproductive health and family planning.
These NGOs’ efforts are slowly yielding positive results. Today we can see a few men at mother and child health clinics which was not the case a few years ago. While this change of attitude is commendable, we still have a long way to go to ensure meaningful involvement of men in family planning services.
Unlike many men, Mohamed is usually eager to learn more about family planning but he normally depends on his wife for the information. His wife attends clinic every month when she goes for her monthly contraceptive pills.
“She shares all the information she gets from the clinic with me. She tells me about the various contraception methods like the injection, the pill, implants and condoms,” Mohamed says.
He and his wife have opted for the pill for the time being but would like to use a permanent method after they get their desired number of children.
“My wife is on the pill for now. We have decided to have four children because we cannot afford to maintain more than that given our poor economic status,” says Mohamed.
His wife Celina Bakari re-affirmed their commitment of having four children and stopping thereafter. “What my husband said is true. Our plan is to have four children. We want to plan our future. We need to take our children to good schools,” she said cuddling their two-year-old son Hasmiri Hassan.
Mohamed is among thousands of men who after sensitisation are eager to know about family planning. But given the deep-rooted culture where it is believed that family planning is a woman’s business, these men only get this information trough their wives.
According to Masasi District Reproductive and Child Health Coordinator (DRCHC), Christa Swalehe, initially it was difficult to find men at reproductive health centres despite attempts to encourage them to attend with their wives.
“But the situation is improving slowly. Nowadays you can see at least two men at the clinic. But when they come they stay outside or under the tree with the kids while their wives are being attended to. When a nurse starts providing health education to the women, some would come and listen and even ask questions,” says Christa.
But in most cases they would pretend to be busy with the children and not paying attention to what is being taught,” the reproductive health official says.
The project to involve men in reproductive health is run in collaboration with district officials and the community leaders. Sensitisation is done in gatherings, through peer educators and community action groups where men sensitise fellow men on family planning issues.
NGOs train health providers on how to provide male-friendly services. The trainings aim at helping healthcare providers come up with different ways of making family planning services more welcoming to men.
During health education programmes, women are encouraged to bring their partners along as well as when they come for consultation so that health officials can discuss family planning issues with both partners.
Among the most underserved group when it comes to family planning is the new generation of adolescents- who are sexually active but are excluded from reproductive health services.
They enter adulthood with inadequate information on sexuality and reproductive health and with little skills to protect their health and rights. Family planning services too often fail to reach the poor, those living in remote areas and urban slums and people who are less educated.
In 2010/11, Tanzania’s National Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan (NFPCIP) estimated a need of 19bn/- to progress towards achievement of 60 percent contraceptive prevalence by 2015.
The actual government commitment for family planning in 2010/11 was only 3bn/-, merely 16 percent of the estimated budgetary need. This is the lowest commitment for family planning in over 10 years.
This lack of funding threatens to derail family planning in Tanzania and prevents progress towards attainment of MDG 5 on reduction of maternal mortality by 75 per cent come 2015.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
1 comments:
It is really challenging.
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