daniel chigunwe
Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Senior Health Reporter
When Thando Nkala (24) completed her Ordinary Level examinations in 2018, she set her sights on a career as a nurse aid.
She started training in Esigodini in 2022 and moved one step closer to launching her career.
But when she fell pregnant, she was forced to put her dreams on hold as she focused on her pregnancy and the birth of the child.
She could not carry on with her attachment as she moved to Gwanda with her husband.
Following the birth of her daughter in 2023, Thando knew she wanted to space out her children and take another shot at fulfilling her dreams.
Taking charge of her family planning, she opted for the Depo-Provera injection, a temporary birth control method. This allowed her to focus on her baby girl while keeping her future plans in mind.
“I have no plan to have a second baby for another three years, so I think my decision to be on contraception was the best. This gives me enough time to plan for our second child. While I do that, I hope to continue with my studies and finish my nurse aid course,” she said.
She is now considering changing from the short-term method she is using to a longer term method as she moves towards her career.
Thando’s experience highlights the importance of family planning options.
As the United Nations Population Fund emphasises, every woman has the right to decide on the timing, number, and spacing of her children.
Contraceptives empower women like Thando to make informed choices about their families and careers.
Florence Kungai’s story further echoes this sentiment.
For Florence (31) having the family planning method she was using failing her on two occasions, was not what she had hoped for.
“I was on a contraceptive when I conceived the last two of my four children. So I decided to change my contraception and I am now using the Intra-Uterine device (IUD) method and I have not experienced any challenges. I am actually enjoying this method because I have not experienced any side effects like weight gain or mood swings. I am hoping that it will work and I can concentrate on raising my children,” she said.
For both Thando and Florence, contraceptives are more than just birth control; they are tools for self-realisation.
Thando can pursue her education with confidence, and Florence can enjoy her current family and choose to have another child when the time is right.
Health authorities in Matabeleland South have been on a deliberate drive to educate women and girls about the family planning choices available to them.
Community health workers have been at the forefront in their communities to ensure every woman knows the options available to them.
Said Ms Nobukhosi Ndlovu, a community health worker at Phakama clinic in Gwanda: “When we go out we provide health education for the women. We teach them about short and long term family planning options that are available and we educate them on the importance of family planning.
“We encourage them to always discuss issues to do with family planning with their husbands so that they can make decisions together on the type of family planning method they prefer to use. We also encourage breastfeeding mothers to use family planning because we have seen women who come for the six weeks check-up and they are already pregnant. So we always encourage them to choose a plan.”
This has brought positive results for the district as more women have begun taking up family planning.
According to Phakama clinic acting sister-in-charge Samukelisiwe Nyathi, women are accessing free family planning services and there has been an increased demand following the outreaches in communities.
“We have seen an increased uptake of family planning services since 2023. For injectables, we had 296 women compared to 2020 when we had 268 women. During the first quarter of 2023, we gave 241 implants and this number grew in the same period this year to 324 women. Then for IUCD, in 2023 we gave 75 women and in 2024 we had 84 women,” she said.
“Basically, we just offer those services regardless of the culture or level of education of those women. We are able to reach out to them through integrated outreaches. Some women are not able to come to the clinic to get them so we make arrangements. We plan for outreach services to reach them and offer them services.”
The women have been empowered to make informed decisions about their bodies and this is expected to have an impact on the national outcomes for maternal mortality.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest maternal mortality rates at 263 per 100 000 live births and Government and its partners have made a commitment to reduce this by 2030. There are also plans to improve the uptake of contraceptives for women and girls to reduce the unmet need for family planning.
Matabeleland South provincial reproductive health officer Mrs Mildred Senda said the Ministry of Health and Child Care was working with partners to make sure that all health facilities can offer services that are needed by women.
“We are thankful for Health Resilient Fund because since inception, we have seen great strides in the indicators. In modern contraceptive coverage, we are now at 87 percent, which is a really good move for us as a Province,” she said.
With support from the Health Resilience Fund, a pooled fund financed by the Governments of United Kingdom, Ireland, the European Union and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the United Nations Population Fund is aiming to achieve the targets for family planning in line with the International Conference on Population and Development action plan goals set in 2019.
The HRF envisions that the most cost-effective way to reduce maternal and new-born mortality is to reduce the unmet need for family planning thereby ensuring that pregnancies are by choice not chance.
Supported by UNFPA, Zimbabwe has seen the increased domestic financing for the procurement of contraceptives through the operationalisation of the matched funding mechanism for the procurement of contraceptives.
In 2023, Government procured US$1,5m worth of contraceptives which triggered an additional US$1,5m worth of commodities from the UNFPA Global Supplies Partnership.
UNFPA country representative Ms Miranda Tabifor said family planning was a critical programme component of the UNFPA’s work in Zimbabwe.
“We have the bigger vision and mandate that there should be zero unmet need for family planning. Women and those who are of age, as young people should have access to family planning services. So we are very grateful to the Health Resilience Fund programme in general and the partners that have supported this component of the programme.
“When we look at the family planning programme in the country, Zimbabwe is applauded for having a very promising, progressive family planning programme in the region,” she said.
Statistics show that the unmet need for family planning in the country has declined from 13 percent to 10 percent. There has also been a significant increase in the uptake of modern contraceptive from 59 percent in 2011 to 68 percent in 2022, one of the highest CPR in the region.
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