Experts share experiences on different FP issues

Dar es Salaam, October 9, 2013
A three-day National Family Planning Conference started in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, October 9th 2013 year when a number of presentations were submitted, discussed and shared among more than 500 participants.

On her paper titled ‘Reaching the Hard to Reach: Reproductive Health Services for Transient Traders in Mbarara, Uganda’ presented at Ruby Hall, Bibuli Joachim from Centre for Information Policy in Africa told the participants how Uganda succeeded to reduce HIV transmission in Mbarara, the district with majority work as bar maids, house maids, hairdressers and salon workers, mechanics, hawkers, boda-boda cyclists, bar attendants, taxi touts and wheelbarrow pushers.

These are the most vulnerable and yet, information and services are out of their reach due to their lack of education, high levels of mobility, and social and economic vulnerability,” she said.

Through Reproductive Health Uganda’s (RHU) Transient Traders (TT) project, all targeted groups were reached and accessed sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services.

The peer to peer approach was said to be effective mean of serving the hard to reach; dance and drama education are effective in community mobilization while use of recreational activities acted as a bait to attract young people to access the SRH&R services.

Hence, number of HIV incidence reduced. Increased IEC/BCC activities and political will accelerated prevention hence reduction in incidence rate.

The Community Based Distribution (CBD) Tanzania Programme Manager with, Ms Anna Mwakibete, said skillful training should immediately take place among service providers, especially in rural areas.

Speaking in the same hall, Ms Mwakibete said: “It should be remembered that all workers under this system (CBD) are volunteers without any knowledge apart from reading and writing skills.”

She therefore called for the Government to direct link with CBD instead of using health centers to give directives to volunteers.

The Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas), Associate Professor Daudi Simba said improvement of CBD system would enable family planning services to reach all members of society regardless their economical backgrounds.

Another presenter in Ruby Hall was Senior Lecturer, Mzumbe University, Mr.Henry Mollel, who presented the paper titled ‘Reaching the Poor Through CBD of Contraceptives: Experience From Muheza District Tanzania’.

Mengi Ntinginya from Marie Stopes Tanzania presented a paper titled ‘Family Planning Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Among Rural Women and Men in 15 Regions of Tanzania’ at Diamond Hall, mentioned barriers to using preferred FP methods.

Some of them are fear and misconceptions about adverse effects, medical practitioner recommended an alternative option, unavailability of professionals to offer the preferred services, especially implants and unavailability of the preferred method at nearby health facilities.

Other presenters in Diamond Hall were Joyce Chebet and Sarah Bechkam both from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Nicodemus Gaudence of MUHAS.

Earlier in the Tanzanite Hall, the National Family Planning Coordinator, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Mr. Maurice Hiza presented the paper titled ‘Update on the National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program (NFPCIP): Improving Coordination of the FP Program in Tanzania’.

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