CHAT's Family Planning Outreach
Humble Victory - Namaiyan*
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Namaiyan, who hails from Arjijo , in the Mukogodo area in the Laikipia North sub county was 14 years old when she became pregnant. After birth, she confided to one of her trusted neighbours that at her age and being single, she did not want to have any more children because she is unable to feed the child she has – let alone trying to support any other children.
Namaiyan’s neighbour informed her that during the chief baraza, the area chief confirmed that a team of health providers accompanying a motor mobile clinic, had requested him to assist with the mobilization – and that they would be in the area within the month. Among the services that they will provide would be free family planning services– but that here would be a small ‘token’ cost for the basic curatives. Her neighbour promised to alert |
Namaiyan once the mobile team arrived. On arrival of “CHAT’s” motor mobile health team in the area, the neighbour took Namaiyan to the camp site where the mobile clinic was set up. They were welcomed by the Family Planning Community Own Resource Person (CORPs) called Namusungu, and after several hours of counselling on a range of choices of family planning methods, Namaiyan decided upon the five (5) years Implant as her FP method of choice. “I chose the (jadelle) Implant because it lasts for five (5) years. You cannot forget to take it like you can with the pills - this is a five (5) years guarantee,” says Namaiyan.
Naimayan shared a quote by John O’Donohue, Anam Cara in the book of Celtic Wisdom that an educated friend of hers found, and which se thought appropriate to her situation. “There is the solitude of suffering, when you go through darkness that is lonely, intense and terrible. Words become powerless to express your pain; what others hear from your words is so distant and different from what you are actually suffering, therefore let’s all double up! Use condoms and a highly effective birth control method to take charge of our reproductive health,” Namusungu lamented.
Via CHAT supported mobilizers like Namusungu, women like Namaiyan are transforming their lives through FP – being able to access contraceptives, she now has the choice to plan for the future. "Expanding eligibility of FP services to low-income women will maximize cost-savings both for the community and government, thereby reducing the disparities in access to family planning services for low-income women and hence, decrease the incidence of abortion and infanticide in our communities,” FPCORP Namusungu confirms.
Namaiyan was lucky to receive professional FP advice. In many underserved communities, widespread myths about contraception mean that many women like Namaiyan don’t have the facts that they need to make informed choices, as we cannot confront the massive challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and environmental destruction unless we address issues of population and reproductive health; bearing in mind that, “each person we add now disproportionately impacts on the environmental and life-support systems of the planet,”- George W. Bush.
Naimayan shared a quote by John O’Donohue, Anam Cara in the book of Celtic Wisdom that an educated friend of hers found, and which se thought appropriate to her situation. “There is the solitude of suffering, when you go through darkness that is lonely, intense and terrible. Words become powerless to express your pain; what others hear from your words is so distant and different from what you are actually suffering, therefore let’s all double up! Use condoms and a highly effective birth control method to take charge of our reproductive health,” Namusungu lamented.
Via CHAT supported mobilizers like Namusungu, women like Namaiyan are transforming their lives through FP – being able to access contraceptives, she now has the choice to plan for the future. "Expanding eligibility of FP services to low-income women will maximize cost-savings both for the community and government, thereby reducing the disparities in access to family planning services for low-income women and hence, decrease the incidence of abortion and infanticide in our communities,” FPCORP Namusungu confirms.
Namaiyan was lucky to receive professional FP advice. In many underserved communities, widespread myths about contraception mean that many women like Namaiyan don’t have the facts that they need to make informed choices, as we cannot confront the massive challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and environmental destruction unless we address issues of population and reproductive health; bearing in mind that, “each person we add now disproportionately impacts on the environmental and life-support systems of the planet,”- George W. Bush.
Adana*, 24 years old
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Adana visited the clinic for a re-insertion of the three-year contraceptive method, Implanon. Much like the first time she received the contraceptive implant, Adana came to CHAT in secret, as her husband does not want any of his wives to avail themselves of contraception.
She is her husband’s fourth wife and has four children – a number which might be regarded as high in the western world, but pales in comparison to the round dozen that the first wife has delivered (wives number two and three have ten and eight children, respectively.) With such a comparatively low number of births, Silvana’s husband believes there is something wrong with her. His criticisms of her apparent lack of ability to conceive drove her last year to fake both a pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage to try to cover up the fact that she is using family planning. |
After this supposed miscarriage, her husband took her to the localwitch doctor for treatment, who pronounced that Adana had been cursed and ordered her to slaughter a black goat to lift said curse. The witch doctor insisted the goat be entirely black, as the person who had cursed Adana surely was, too.
To this day, Adana’s husband doesn’t know she is using contraception and she is afraid to tell him. Men in this area of Samburu are very resistant to family planning and insist that contraception leads to permanent infertility and promiscuity. Efforts by CHAT to try to educate the men in this area have been soundly rebuffed by male members of the community. Resultingly, CHAT has been forced to work with women in the community in relative secret, using basic curative care as an entry point to provide women with contraception. The upside is that people are receiving care they desperately need – there is no hospital in the area. The downside, of course, is the need for secrecy and continuing misconceptions about family planning running rampant through the community. Our FPCORPs continue to work hard to challenge misconceptions in this region.
To this day, Adana’s husband doesn’t know she is using contraception and she is afraid to tell him. Men in this area of Samburu are very resistant to family planning and insist that contraception leads to permanent infertility and promiscuity. Efforts by CHAT to try to educate the men in this area have been soundly rebuffed by male members of the community. Resultingly, CHAT has been forced to work with women in the community in relative secret, using basic curative care as an entry point to provide women with contraception. The upside is that people are receiving care they desperately need – there is no hospital in the area. The downside, of course, is the need for secrecy and continuing misconceptions about family planning running rampant through the community. Our FPCORPs continue to work hard to challenge misconceptions in this region.
Grace*
Grace has 8 children; 5 girls and 3 boys. Grace doesn’t want any more children and uses the 5-year contraceptive implant. She is so happy with it, and says that since receiving the implant she has become stronger because she is not always pregnant anymore; she has more strength to complete her daily chores such as collecting fire wood and water.
She says another benefit since receiving the implant from CHAT is that she has time to think. Also her children are stronger too. Grace recommends family planning to all her friends.
Grace’s husband has also noticed the benefits of family planning and supports her using it. He says that he is happy because before she used to conceive when the other child was still a baby, and was always very tired. Life was harder for them before she received family planning from CHAT.
Grace has 8 children; 5 girls and 3 boys. Grace doesn’t want any more children and uses the 5-year contraceptive implant. She is so happy with it, and says that since receiving the implant she has become stronger because she is not always pregnant anymore; she has more strength to complete her daily chores such as collecting fire wood and water.
She says another benefit since receiving the implant from CHAT is that she has time to think. Also her children are stronger too. Grace recommends family planning to all her friends.
Grace’s husband has also noticed the benefits of family planning and supports her using it. He says that he is happy because before she used to conceive when the other child was still a baby, and was always very tired. Life was harder for them before she received family planning from CHAT.
health workers (the local CORP). He wanted his wife to have a rest, as it is very hard having so many children. She had never used family planning before and wanted to get the 5-year contraceptive implant. Peter said that before talking with CHAT, he had not thought about the benefits of family planning. Now he understands, he will definitely encourage other men to bring their wives. He said that he is also going to encourage all his children to use it when they are older too.
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There are several health problems in the community such as TB, malaria and typhoid. Mercy is suffering from MDR-TB. The problem with getting good health care is the distance to the health facility; it is a two hour walk from Josephine’s location to the hospital.
Josephine gets drugs at home daily from a Health Care Worker (the local CORP). She would like to request that people give money to CHAT to increase funding so that other patients can get help too. She would also like the government to build a hospital near her market. |
Minara, 13 years old
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Minara came to camp late at night to get the 5 year contraceptive implant inserted. Minara was brought by her mother, and they wanted to keep it a secret from her father. Minara wanted to get family planning because in the last 6 months she has had two abortions. Both were conducted in the bush, in secret, by an unqualified person. She did not like to talk about the process that occurred, just that is was very horrible and she didn’t want to do it again.
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Minara, is sexually active with one boyfriend. It is still part of the Samburu tradition that if a young warrior, or Moran as they are known (aged between 16-30 years), gives a girl red beads, he is then known as her boyfriend. This is conducted with the parents’ consent. However, it is very common for the warriors to have more than one girlfriend. It is considered taboo for the warrior to marry a girlfriend and when he is ready to marry, he will choose another woman. This causes a big problem for young girls, not only because they are exposed to unsafe sex with men who have many sexual partners, but also because if a girl has a child out of wedlock, she is not allowed to be married. This results in a very high rate of abortions in the young girls. Most of which are carried out in secret and performed in brutal conditions.
For more stories compiled by field staff and and volunteers, download these files.
| chat_volunteer_stories_alistair_bestow.pdf |
| CHAT Stories from the field |
| CHAT Volunteers' Stories and Journals |
* All names and pictures have been changed to respect privacy
