CSOs in move to revive family planning in Chitipa
Civil society organisations (CSOs) network in Chitipa has embarked on a sensitisation campaign on modern family planning methods whose demand, the say, has dropped from 65 to 40 percent in the past two years.
Speaking during a District Executive Committee (DEC) meeting on Tuesday, the network’s chairperson Sidney Simwaka said factors contributing to the development include long distances to health centres and the phasing out of a health system programme by Support for Service Delivery Integration (SSDI).
family planning services
“We observed that since SSDI phased out its programme in Chitipa, we have few NGOs that are promoting the use of modern family planning methods.
“Also, there are inadequate motivators for the campaign,” he said.
The network says it will revive family health camps and male motivators that were established by SSDI to improve the situation.
One of the women, Mary Mwawembe, said she stopped using family planning methods due to side effects.
Chitipa district environmental health officer Sam Chirwa said due to inadequate counsellors, most women in the district have been using wrong family planning methods.
He said Chitipa Diatrict Hospital is currently registering about 300 newborn babies per month from about 100 in 2016.
The network’s intervention is being supported by African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref),
Chitipa has a population of about 200 000.
