Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) has urged religious leaders in Dowa to embrace family planning methods in evangelism to control population growth.
Dowa EAM vice-chairperson the Reverend Caesar Nkhoma made the call during a family planning training for church leaders, women and the youth at Mponela in Dowa on Tuesday.
During the meeting, health experts made presentations on various family planning techniques.
“The idea of using church leaders is important because there is a greater probability that more people are going to be reached. Apart from that, population growth touches on the issue of national development where the church has a role to play,” said Nkhoma.
He said the church emphasises on methods which do not involve taking away life for the adults and abstinence for the youth.
The training is one of the activities EAM is implementing under a project on the role of the church in minimising population growth with funding from Plan International-USA through the Health Policy Plus (HP+) programme.
One of the trainees, Mercy Gomani, who also heads Dowa Assemblies of God women’s body, said a controlled population improves health of families because parents are able to take care of few children.
She said it also promotes women participation in development activities because they have a sizeable pressure of caring for the family than when there are many children. n
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