Healthy Families, Brighter Futures Family Planning

Dear friends,

Family planning is hailed as one of the great public health achievements of the last century, and yet over 200 million women worldwide who want to use contraceptives don’t have access to them.  In the poor and rural communities women and men are not empowered to decide the number of children and timing of their births, despite the fact that complications during pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for women in Africa. 

Voluntary family planning empowers women and men to decide when to have a child and to avoid unintended pregnancies and abortions.  This results in healthier families, communities, and nations. In addition, some methods of family planning prevent both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. 

But despite this, many times medics are faced with the situation where the community has not yet understood the need for family planning and spacing of their children. 

I found them in the waiting room, she looked frightened and disturbed. Her husband was ready to pounce on me as soon as I walked out of the doctors room. 

I quickly sensed trouble and greeted him.

"Daktar!, he shouted out loudly". I want you to remove this “thing” off my wife’s arm. Grabbing her arm! Now he had attracted some attention from the rest of the patients. So I invited him to my office. I did not want him to cause any more unnecessary noise 

When they sat down, he again sternly spoke. “I never asked you to put this “thing” on my wife. I decide the number of my children so do need any interference with my family matters.” He emphasised.

As a medic, I experience this kind of emotions many times and now I know how to handle such cases. I am trained to counsel such patients. But this outburst was different, he was almost becoming violent towards me. If this is his reaction towards me, how has he reacted towards his wife. I wondered!  She obviously looked very scared, because she never spoke a word even when in the room. 

I noticed that he was not going to leave the room until I did what he wanted. So, I called out the nurse and asked her to take the women to the treatment room. 

Its only in the treatment room that she started speaking. She said that she did not want to remove the implant that was inserted on her arm. She said that she already had five children. We respected her desires as an adult. I quietly prayed at this moment. I counselled them, and asked them to return the following day for more counselling. They needed to be counselled, but how do you handle such an angry man?

The number of women who do not have access to an effective method of family planning remains unacceptably high. Less than 20 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa and 34 percent of women in South Asia use modern contraceptives. As a result, each year, there are 75 million women in developing countries who experience unintended pregnancies; 20 million of whom resort to unsafe abortions. 

It is estimated that providing these women with access to modern contraceptives would reduce maternal deaths by 25 percent, newborn deaths by 18 percent, and unintended pregnancies by 73 percent.

By 2050, the global population is expected to grow to over 9 billion people, an increase of more than 50 percent over 2005 levels. 

This growth will only exacerbate the current health inequities for women and children, put pressure on social services and resources, and contribute significantly to the global burden of disease, environmental degradation, poverty, and conflict. 

Family planning is one of the best investments a country can make in its future.

Dear friends the challenges still remain with the increased shortages of contraceptives that undermine our programs’ ability to achieve results.  Another challenge is that some current contraceptives remain too costly for procurement groups and in some cases, for the women who use them.  Another challenge is the lack of funding to hold trainings in the community to educate them on family planning practices. 

We trust that you will continue to support us in these services so that we reduce the unmet need in this community. Share our stories and links with your friends. Like us on our facebook Karin Community Initiative Uganda.

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Links:

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In the village market of Laliya, you will find Rita, carefully arranging and cleaning her stall, ready to sell her farm produce. She has worked in this stall for the last five years. Rita has a long story to tell and her eyes tell it all. Rita was abducted as a young girl at the age of 12 years. When she escaped with her six month old daughter strapped on back, little did she know that she would be rejected by her own family whom she had longed to see whilst in captivity. Rejected and alone Rita sought help with a local women’s group- Karin Women Farmer’s group.

She lived in poverty and turned to alcohol to drown her sorrow. During her captivity, she had contracted HIV/AIDS, not sure with what to do with her life, Rita turned to alcohol. Hoping that the alcohol would numb her pain and troubles away, she soon became known as a drunk.

Her neighbor on noticing her life struggles shared to her about the women’s group that meet once every week to learn and benefit from micro loan opportunities. She also shared that Rita can get treatment from the medical centre. But with no skills, Rita was not sure if this was a group that she could be accepted in as she could neither read nor write. 

On Tuesday afternoon, together with her neighbor they went to the Karin Centre for the weekly support group meeting; where she met many welcoming ladies. She was warmly welcomed by the group trainer and this prompted Rita into a quick decision to join this group.

After several meetings with the women group, she signed up to borrow a small loan. Rita also remarried and now has three children. In the trainings she has not only learned life skills, but also business skills to run her small business. At the Karin Medical Centre, Rita is able to see friendly medical workers and receive treatment whenever she falls sick.

When she was given a small loan to start her business and through perseverance and commitment, she is now able to provide for her family. Her children now attend school and she and her husband are happy together.

When I met Rita at the market stall, she was very warm and she welcomed me to her stall where she offered me a stool to sit on.

On asking her about her business venture; she looked at me with warmth and exclaimed and said, “I am getting by”!  Even though I had heard her story of her times in captivity before, I knew she had only told me a small portion of it.

Today, Rita remains a very consistent member of the women group, her story has changed and influenced many women in the group.

For me I see great change in Rita ….she has experienced transformation and is willing to share her experience to others.  Her story presents a need to continue serving the communities.

Through our work we are restoring Gulu, one person at a time, bringing life and renewing hope through the Karin Community Initiatives Uganda ….through people like Rita. But this work would never be accomplished without people like you.

The year has began, there is need to continue and I urge you to continue partnering with us in this transforming journey. Share our Globalgiving page with your contacts and tell them why you decided to donate to us and why they should do the same.

Please help us to transform the lives of more former child soldiers, by becoming a regular donor of this critical work, or making another one off donation.  Thank you for your support.  It really makes a great difference!

Hey, Can you do more? Consider signing up for a monthly recurring donation today. Thank you for your support!

Links:

• website
• facebook