Embrace family planning, health experts beckon women

Health experts in Taraba state have urged women  to embrace family planning.

The head of family planning unit of Sintali Ward Primary Health Care Centre (PHCC), Jalingo, Hajiya Hafsatu Saleh, while speaking to journalists disclosed that in the past, less than 10% of women  come for family planning.

She noted that good number of women in the past find it difficult to accept family planning.

According to her, over 1,500 women had so far accessed the services between February and November, 2020.

She said Nigeria States Health Investment Project (AF-NSHIP) and others, most of the health facilities at the centre had been renovated.

She said commodities were provided so that the child spacing services could be offered to interested persons free of charge.

“At our centre, for instance, there was a major renovation by some NGOs.

“They also provided the commodities so that we offer family planning services here for free.

“Our team of social mobilisers are also doing a great job in enlightening the residents,” she noted

Also, the  head of  the family planning unit of Turaki Township PHCC Hajiya Zakiyatu Ibrahim said the wrong notion  surrounding family planning in the past have been put to rest.

She said, “It may interest you to know that even unmarried young people and adolescents now frequent the hospital for counselling.

“This is a very good development as it is pertinent for them to stay away from unwanted pregnancies that can cost their education and future.”

She informed that the high number of people coming for the services had put a lot of pressure on the available commodities, especially implants.

A beneficiary of the family planning services, 35-year-old Zalihat Ibrahim, said she had to resort to family planning after delivering her 8th child because her husband was finding it difficult to cope with school fees and other educational needs of the children.

A development specialist hired by the Challenge Initiative, Mr Akinpelumi Akinsanmi, TCI, an NGO working on family planning in Taraba, during a workshop organised for selected journalists in Taraba state described the programme as a solution to the menace of out-of-school children in Taraba and the country.

Akinsanmi, who is from Development Communication (DevCom), said the workshop on media advocacy for family planning was aimed at engaging Journalists to assist in the enlightenment process and making citizens to embrace family planning.

He lamented that many children ended up in the streets because the family size grossly outweighed available resources to cater for the education needs of all.

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