Saving Kenya's Environment Through Family Planning

A smile at last

*Not their real names

Had she not made up her mind to embrace what other community members had termed as ‘anticultural’, her life would hitherto be similar to many other cases within the society. She emotionally narrates her story of how hard life was for her back in those days, and the bitter memories trigger tears down her cheeks. “I am lucky that these are tears of memories and not today’s realities!” she stated as Stella helped her wipe the tears. According to her, she never imagined one day she would ever tell her story since she had never had even a hint of how her life would change for the better.

“This lady has been more than a destiny aider- she revived my life. I was just enduring and not living,” she said, referring to Stella- CHAT’s partner, a community own resource person (CORP). “Telling her story took her more than courage and listening to it as well, but experiencing her story as it unfolded then, was more horrific than anything else,” said Stella as she echoed her words. Stella’s first experience with her client was when Stella met her with her three children by the road late in the evening after a domestic conflict. She had disagreed with her drunk husband due to his irresponsibility and had made up her mind that enough was enough.

Being passionate about empowering fellow women and seeing them thriving in life, Stella had a deeper conversation with *Naeku”. Though she did not have much to offer her at the time, she was confident that in the long run, the conversation would be part of Naeku’s success story soon, if not sooner. “I did no idea of how access to family planning would transform my situation before. But today, I agree that it solves especially so many of a woman’s problems,” stated Naeku happily as she explained how her situation changed after meeting CORP Stella. She acknowledged that her sessions with Stella helped open her mind and enabled her to see an opportunity to space her children, focus on more productive activities and support her husband in making their family better.

Stella would later visit Naeku’s house and share with Naeku’s husband about FP and its environmental and economic benefits. He would later admit he regretted that he had made his wife and children suffer because he was not aware of such interventions that would enable him to manage his family size and their scarce resources. He would later become a pro-FP mobiliser among fellow men in the community, encouraging them to embrace the intervention. Though it was not an easy experience, Stella was glad she was restoring family units and putting smiles on fellow women’s lives. “I cannot be any happier than seeing my fellow women smile and thrive just because of knowing where and how to access family planning,” said Stella as she wound up her story about Naeku.

Thanks to GG support, in the past three months, CHAT was able to reach a total of 12,943individuals with behaviour change information (bcc). 3,195 family planning clients received different contraception methods of their choice, of which 2,211 chose the long-term pregnancy protection methods of 3 & 5 years - against unwanted pregnancies.

“Contraceptives have a proven track record of enhancing the health of women and children, preventing unintended pregnancy, and reducing the need for abortion.” Louise Slaughter