Awka – A three-day training on media advocacy for effective family planning in Anambra State, on Tuesday kicked off in Awka.
The event has as its participants, media personnel, social
media influencers and information officers of Ministries, Departments and
Agencies in Anambra State.
The training, organized by Development Communications
Network (DEVCOMS) in partnership with The Challenge Initiative (TCI), aims to
empower participants with the right knowledge to be able to drive the advocacy
for increased uptake of Family Planning in Anambra State.
It also looked to demystify myths and misconceptions
mitigating the proper uptake of the initiative by citizens of the state, while
evolving strategies to better engage stakeholders to own the campaign.
The State Commissioner for Health, Vincent Okpala who was
represented by the Director, Public Health and Disease Control in the Ministry,
Dr Uchechukwu Onyejimbe observed that for people to access health services and
benefits that accrue to them, they need to be aware of their existence.
According to him, the idea behind targeting the information
managers is to ensure proper information dissemination among the citizenry.
“A major constraint to effective uptake of Family Planning
initiative is lack of access to information and we all know the critical role
the media play in this regard. The country has very significant budgetary
provision for family planning but a major observation is that only an
insignificant fraction of our population has been able to access the services
as they should because they are not aware. That is why this training is very
important,’’ he said.
In her presentation, the State Family Planning Coordinator,
Chioma Okedo, said family planning which is one of the aspects of safe
motherhood, is a global approach towards reducing maternal motherhood.
According to her, the initiative looks to ensure that every
woman of reproductive age has access to family planning methods, as a way of
reducing deaths related to childbearing.
In her words, “Family planning is the right of every woman
of reproductive age that is from 15 to 49 years. There are religious and
cultural barriers to family planning and these have inhibited uptake of family
planning methods.”
For Aneotah Egbe, the TCI Program Coordinator in Anambra
State, the TCI is partnering on the project, exploring its platforms including
the media, community structures and other key stakeholders to get the people
better informed to develop an objective perspective to the benefits of family
planning and be able to voluntarily embrace family planning.
Egbe also spoke on the understanding of the TCI Business
Unusual Model to Family Planning.
“The Business Unusual model is a slogan for the TCI projects
which aims to support governments to strengthen its institutions. What we do is
to put the government in the driver’s seat and lead from behind. We build
capacity, we coach and mentor for the core government personnel to take over at
the longer run. Over time, TCI has to step aside, leaving its features behind.
We also leave governments with access to TCI University where they can refer
and a call away, we can still provide virtual support. In doing this, we help
to build a critical mass of skilled government manpower to help them deliver on
their core mandate which is service to the people. What we believe is that when
things are doing right, there is greater confidence in the system,” he said.
On his part, a Media Development Facilitator for DEVCOMS,
Mayowa Adeniran said family planning is a development issue that needs to be
looked at holistically, if the problems that arise from the inability of the
people to uptake the plan such as population explosion and other health
challenges will be addressed.
“If you look at this critically, in Nigeria, there are
conflicting figures as to the population of the people and what this amounts to
is that government cannot plan for the citizens.
Therefore, citizens need to by themselves, look for ways
out. Down to the family, couples must collectively realize that they need to
give their children the best they can and with the present economic downturn,
there is no way they can achieve that if they give birth to many children. If
families continue to produce children they can’t take care of, they may eventually
become a menace to society as criminals among many others. So, family planning
must be approached with an attitudinal change from the previous. We are talking
about full access, full choice, which means that those involved must agree to
voluntarily undertake the methods,” he maintained.
Participants at the training had the opportunity to ask questions on some grey areas as regards uptake of family planning.
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