Saving Kenya's Environment Through Family Planning

At the crack of dawn on our second day at our Loikumkum base clinic camp in Samburu, northern Kenya, CHAT’s nurse met with Kinas*, a shy and pleasant twenty three year old, divorced Samburu mother of seven children; Kinas was desperately trying to seek ways to avoid more unwanted pregnancies. She chose a 5 year contraceptive; although ideally she would like a ‘permanent method’. However, that option was not immediately affordably available to her.  “The ages of my 7 children are thirteen (13), ten (10), seven (7), five (5) & nine (9) months old twins - yes, I have twins!”

“This is not my first time to hear about FP, in fact I chose to have a five 5 year implant a few years ago, after I had my fifth child. But I made the decision to have another child, however, after separating from my husband, and being left with now “twins” to care for on top of my other five children, I have decided not to have any more children. Now here is CHAT availing my community this powerful opportunity to be able to take control of my life - ohwaaah! Birth control is the only blessing that will save the world,” Kinas exclaimed to the nurse.

“I now understand that Family Planning is not only beneficial to human, but also to the wildlife & environment - in our traditional Samburu culture, our great grandparents used to conserve the wild life - it was revered; it also brought tourists and this was a source of income for the community. They used specifically the elephant dung for lighting the first fire in a Manyatta (homestead). Therefore, it’s important to balance the population to protect the environment and hence, cherish the planet” Kinas exclaimed.

For Kinas, the 5 year implant protection FP method is the best decision for her considering her current situation, or will choose a permanent method when the opportunity arises.

“As an empowered single mother, am motivated to use a FP method as I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem to my community today. We human beings have become a disease, the human-pox!!” Kinas lamented.

CHAT nurse supported Kinas by confirming that “We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, and abortion - values that control population because an ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis”.

“Yes!” agreed Kinas, “Therefore, cut the population by 90% then there are not enough people left to do a great deal of damage to the ecosystems!” Retorted Kinas airily.

With CHAT’s core intervention and focus being on Population Health and Environment, CHAT ensures quality provision of free FP services to the marginalized communities in Kenya. A world fertility survey indicates that anywhere from one third to one half of the babies in the third world resulted from unwanted pregnancies; so if their mothers had access to affordable, reliable FP, these mothers would be empowered and have a say & influence in their own family size - presently most do not.

“We must alert and organize the world’s people to take specific steps to solve the two root causes of our environmental crisis-exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources. Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today,”- Quoted by Jacques Yves Cousteau

Between September to November 2016, thanks to your donations (cost shared) CHAT reached 11,775 individuals with family planning/ ecological sensitisation, & 6,474 women chose and were given contraception methods of their choice. A total of 1,137 patients were also treated for various ailments (an important entry point to CHAT’s FP services) - all in 10 Kenyan Counties