Saving Kenya's Environment Through Family Planning

*Not their real names

As the CHAT motor mobile team was settling into camp in Ntepes in Samburu after a days-long work, Nurse Ann noticed CORP Ntoijoni was seated at the furthest end with a woman. They were in deep conversation. She was curious thus decided to approach them. She found *Lesempa looking all scared but at the same time hopeful.  She wanted to know why the lady had taken her time to come to the clinic only to sit there reluctantly, not sure what to do. She led them to the tent so they could talk more.

*Lesempa had come to the clinic to find a solution. She is 35 years old and has ten children. She doesn’t want any more. She was married at 20 years, which was an achievement since her sisters and peers mainly were married at only 15.

Her reason for getting FP was that she wanted to be able to send all her children to school, all the way to the end. Her youngest child is just 1 ½ years old, and she says she is scared if she has any more children, she won’t be able to afford school for them all. She had seen how Ntoijoni was able to educate her children and had learnt that recently, one had just finished high school and was attending computer classes in Maralal town (That was such a big deal to *Lesempa) . From the frequent interactions CORP Ntoijoni had with *Lesempa, she always encouraged her to plan her family whilst consideration of her recourses. Once Ntoijoni correlated the success of her children to how she planned her family, Lesempa started to see the light. She began to understand that the most significant benefit of FP is for her children’s future.

She was initially scared that her husband would be adamant and say that she had to continue having children. But to her surprise, he was in full support of her going for FP which was so admirable. She had never used FP before and said she used to fear because she heard lots of stories that it would do bad things to the body and make one sick. At the end of it all, Lesempa was able to get a five-year implant that would protect her from getting more children.

Thanks to GG support, in the past three months, CHAT was able to reach a total of 12,134 individuals with behaviour change information (bcc)  with 3,912 family planning clients receiving different contraception methods, of which 3,001 chose the long-term methods - 3/5-years protection against unwanted pregnancies.

“Family planning is an integral part of development planning. It is an essential part for the reason that you cannot hope to plan other forms of production if you cannot plan the production of the main resource – the human beings.” Mwai Kibaki

* Not their real names

Mutunga*, a father of two was close to leaving Katse because of the pressure from the family to have more children. He is a farmer and with the continuous dry spell in Katse, he had little to no harvest. He and his wife Nduku* had agreed to have a small family after being sensitized on the importance of family planning and how it could help them organize their finances, they agreed to use the five-year implant. It had only been two years and his parents kept asking if his wife had suddenly become barren.

Mutunga did not want to explain to anyone why he was not having more children but at the same time, he felt pity for his wife who was being ridiculed for not having more children. He knew that the backward-mindedness of his old folks would not let them rest till they had more children so he decided to leave the village. He shared this with his friend who asked him why not have Mbuli- CHAT’s CORP - to go talk to his parents. Mutunga was skeptical though he agreed to try it as the last resort before he moved.

He and Mbuli planned a day and went to his parents’ home. At first, they were surprised why their son was going to visit them with Mbuli. They knew her from the time she taught them about C-19 prevention. They decided to listen to what she had to say this time around. Mbuli explained to them how Mutunga and his siblings did not get the best kind of education and upbringing because they were too many and did not have a great source of income. That is why Mutunga had decided to have a small family that he and his wife could easily manage.

His parents agreed that having and raising 10 children with their little wealth, was a struggle. They now understood why their son was reluctant to have more children. They decided to support his idea and encouraged Mbuli to visit Mutungas’ brothers to advise them so that they too would plan their families and lives sensibly.  

Thanks to GG support, in the past three months, CHAT was able to reach a total of 12,233 individuals with behaviour change communication (bcc) information with 4,511 family planning clients receiving different contraception methods, of which 3,783 chose the long-term methods - 3/5-years protection against unwanted pregnancies.

“Every second, every day, every year, we fail to address demand for reproductive health and family planning services. Lives are lost, and girls’ opportunities to thrive and contribute to their country’s development shrink. These are real people.” Jenny Shipley