By Sharad Agarwal | Project Leader
Dear Friends, Supporters, and Donors,
We would like to thank you for your kind support. We appreciate your continuous contributions to the poor couples who can’t afford & access the family planning services. Your support has led to changes in our intervention areas. In this report, we would like to share the experience of Meenu in her own words.
“My married life was not easy until I met with Asha, Merry-Tarang Worker, who helped me understand the pros and cons of repeated child birth." She made us (My Husband too) realize how our health would be impacted if gave birth to our third child, immediately after an year of second childbirth”.
- Meenu (Beneficiary of the Program)
Namaste!!! I am Meenu, a full-time housewife, managing my day to day work along with two children in a small village called Sahjor, Dist- Chandauli (UP). My husband Mr. Ram is the sole breadwinner for my family. He works as a daily wage worker in a local farm. I am barely educated to know my rights or understand the facts about Family Planning and its methods. After my second child's birth, both females, my in-laws insisting on having a male child. It is very difficult to live with two girl children in a village like- Sahjour, where people constantly taunt and tell you to have a male child and the same was communicated to me through my husband. Despite my choices, he convinced me to have another child, though my health was not good to bear a healthy child.
During one of her routine visits, HLFPPT’s MerryTarang worker (MTW) Asha, visited the village to counsel the community about family planning and its importance where she come across Meenu. During her conversation, she found that Meenu restricted herself from using any family planning methods. Shewas bound by a lot of myths being practiced in the community and started believing without logic. It was very hard to show the real world to Meenu, but our MerryTarang worker did not give up on her and counseled her along with her spouse. Her efforts didn’t go in vain, when Meenu visited Aman Hospital to attend a counselling session with the Doctor. The Doctor suggested that they should not go for another childbirth and opt for permanent female sterilization (FST). Earlier, they denied the option with an idea of having a male child. But as a result of rigorous follow-ups and various counseling were done by MTW, finally, Asha (MerryTarang Worker), succeeded to make them realize that, , two-children are enough to live a happy life. It will not be a wise decision to have a baby boy just for the sake of society wanted them to have it.
They underwent permanent sterilization and chose happiness over societal pressure and bad health. Now, both are happily educating their girl children and empowering them to live a healthier life by making them aware and informed about their rights.
It would be very hard for us to reach and serve the underprivileged area without your support. To serve in every hard to reach the area, we would require your support. Many women like Meenu are still waiting to understand their health rights for taking correct decision if they informed timely with adequate knowledge and possible way to choose the Family Planning Services. They also have the right to live a respectful life. Through this project, HLFPPT is enabling a caring environment for these women and couples.
About the Project:
Since 2016, HLFPPT is helping poor couples in Uttar Pradesh, (UP-India) to avail easy access to Family Planning Methods through our Network of MerryGold Hospitals. These Hospitals are well equipped with trained and qualified doctors, Counsellors and Merry Tarang Workers (MTWs), also known as Front line health workers (FLHW). These MTWs are well versed with the local community, having detailed information about the poor families, who need family planning methods.
We would like to thank our GlobalGiving donors for providing continuous support to our Project “Poor Couples to Access Family Planning”. Your kind contributions are giving them (Married Couples) a chance to make informed decisions about their Sexual and Reproductive Health.
In addition to the above, this is just a matter of fact that, all donations made towards this project may not be released by GlobalGiving due to some administrative reasons. In a couple of months, service to disburse the fund will get back to normal.
Links:
By Sharad Agarwal | Project Leader
By Sharad Agarwal | Project Leader
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