adminTinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
ZIMBABWE will this year, for the first time, join the rest of the world in marking the World Contraception Day, at a time when the country seeks to scale up efforts to increase the uptake of contraceptives. Zimbabwe’s contraception prevalence rate is at 58 percent and efforts are being made to push it to over 70 percent by 2020.
This year’s World Contraception Day commemorations will be held on 26 September at the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) head office in Harare.
The celebrations will run under the theme: “It’s your life, It’s your future, Know your options”.
ZNFPC marketing and public relations manager Mr Simon Chikwizo confirmed to Sunday News that the council had received funding from the Family Health Company in the UK to hold the celebrations.
Mr Chikwizo said plans were under way to spread the celebrations to other centres in future. This year the commemorations would be held at national level only.
He said the thrust of this year’s celebrations was to raise awareness on contraception and empowering young people to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
“This theme has been chosen as it is forward-looking, positive and empowering. There are three sub themes, which are your options. Your future and your partner. We want to encourage young people to learn about all contraceptive options available, using reliable and unbiased sources of information.
“Our aim is also to make sure that young people understand how unplanned pregnancies can happen and how the body changes during puberty. Partners should also learn to talk to each other about contraception and how to build a trusting relationship based on reliable information,” he said.
Mr Chikwizo said it was important to impart information to young people as research had shown that comprehensive sexuality education delays the onset of sexual activity, reduces the number of partners, the frequency of intercourse and increases condoms and contraceptive use.
“Sexuality education plays an important role in correcting myths. So it must be based on medically correct information about contraception, reproduction and sexual health that’s an important message on World Contraception Day,” he said.
Meanwhile, ZNFPC has embarked on an aggressive door to door campaign to promote the female condom and negotiation for safe sex by married women.
HIV/Aids programmers argue that female condoms are the only method that offers dual protection from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV.
According to statistics from ZNFPC, 16,4 million female condoms were distributed countrywide in the past five years, compared to 287 million male condoms that were distributed over the same period.
The above figures, however, only represent condoms distributed via the public sector condom programme. They exclude branded condoms and those distributed through the private sector.
Mr Chikwizo said although uptake of female condoms had witnessed a steady rise in the past five years, it remained significantly low compared to that of male condoms, and there remained need to scale up efforts to promote the contraceptive.
In 2009, 2,7 million female condoms were distributed countrywide, while last year the figure rose to about 3,5 million.
“We have started an aggressive female condom education and promotion campaign. This is a pilot project that will start in three provinces of Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland North.
“Female condom uptake has remained significantly low which is why we have decided to take this route where we will select one cadre from one ward in each of the three provinces.
“The cadres will undergo training on female condom education after which they will return to their respective wards to conduct door to door visits, educating married women on the contraceptive and the techniques of negotiating for safer sex with their partners.
“Why we have taken this route is that, generally people feel more comfortable talking about such sensitive issues as sex and sexuality to people they are familiar with,” he said.
The campaign would also use the “Home Group Meeting” concept in which the cadre would gather small groups of homogeneous groups and facilitate discussion on the importance of contraception.
Mr Chikwizo said the home group meetings would also target rural leadership structures like chiefs, village heads and local political leaders among other community leaders who are believed to have influence in their communities.
“The groups will be made up of 10-12 people who share similar backgrounds. For example, one group might be made up of employed married women and the other made up of young married women and so forth.
“In these groups the cadre will facilitate discussion on the importance of the female condom as well as impart safe sex negotiating techniques to women.
“Men are not left out because they play an important role in the acceptance of the female condom. We are also targeting community leaders and opinion leaders in communities,” he said.
Mr Chikwizo said the pilot project would run for the first year and if it succeeds in the first three provinces it would be rolled out on a full scale to the remaining provinces.
The Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council has acquired 20 Nissan UD trucks, worth about $1,2 million, to be used for distribution of contraceptives and other drugs to clinics and hospitals in different parts of the country.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter