CHAT's Family Planning Outreach
Lotide*
Villagers of Longopito were at their homes trying to keep warm due to the rains that had suddenly started in the middle of the dry season. In the dead silence of the night, they heard a scream from one side of the village. The person kept saying, “Nakataa! Chief! Chief!” it went on for about fifteen minutes, then it stopped. It was interesting, and everyone in the houses started speculating that maybe it was a robbery, but the chief had saved them. The following morning CHAT CORP Julius went to their small centre to find out from the women about what went on.
Small groups were chatting, and from that, he knew that most likely it was a scandalous thing. He joined one of the discussions. “He almost killed Lanima*! Were it not for the small opportunity she got; we would not be having the same discussion.” One mzee shared. “These young men should know that the women of today want to go to school and make money. They cannot have children every other year!” Though he did not understand what was happening, he was happy to hear a man sharing such sentiments.
Julius learnt that Lotide* wanted to beat up his wife for not getting pregnant. After having their first child, they met with the CORP and the motor mobile team, and after sensitisation, they agreed on a 3-year implant. It was now two years, and he demanded that she gets another child. Lanima refused and said that since they had first agreed on 3 years and was unwilling to go back on that decision. He beat her up and took his knife to cut out the implant off her hand. She managed to kick him and ran away to the chiefs.
Immediately on learning this, Julius sought Lotide to know what went wrong and had he forgotten what they had discussed? Lotide apologised and said he knew he was wrong, but his peers already had 2 or 3 children, so why not have more. He felt left out. CORP Julius asked if the other children were well dressed as his or if the wives of his peers looked the same as his. He confessed he was happy with the well-being of his family and would always want them to continue being well. Lotide shared that they had not planned how they would provide for an extra child in the family. He agreed that he had done wrong and wanted to apologise to his wife and seek pardon from the chief. He got punished for all he had done and given a duty to share about Family Planning in the following 3 chiefs’ barazas.
Small groups were chatting, and from that, he knew that most likely it was a scandalous thing. He joined one of the discussions. “He almost killed Lanima*! Were it not for the small opportunity she got; we would not be having the same discussion.” One mzee shared. “These young men should know that the women of today want to go to school and make money. They cannot have children every other year!” Though he did not understand what was happening, he was happy to hear a man sharing such sentiments.
Julius learnt that Lotide* wanted to beat up his wife for not getting pregnant. After having their first child, they met with the CORP and the motor mobile team, and after sensitisation, they agreed on a 3-year implant. It was now two years, and he demanded that she gets another child. Lanima refused and said that since they had first agreed on 3 years and was unwilling to go back on that decision. He beat her up and took his knife to cut out the implant off her hand. She managed to kick him and ran away to the chiefs.
Immediately on learning this, Julius sought Lotide to know what went wrong and had he forgotten what they had discussed? Lotide apologised and said he knew he was wrong, but his peers already had 2 or 3 children, so why not have more. He felt left out. CORP Julius asked if the other children were well dressed as his or if the wives of his peers looked the same as his. He confessed he was happy with the well-being of his family and would always want them to continue being well. Lotide shared that they had not planned how they would provide for an extra child in the family. He agreed that he had done wrong and wanted to apologise to his wife and seek pardon from the chief. He got punished for all he had done and given a duty to share about Family Planning in the following 3 chiefs’ barazas.
Minara, 13 years old
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.
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.
Peter, 50 years old
Peter is from Kirapash and has 1 wife and 8 children. He brought his wife for family planning after talking to one of CHAT’s community-based 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.
Josephine, 28 years
Josephine lives in a local village market where she works as a casual labourer. 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 for others like herself to seek help too also for the government to build a hospital near her market.
Josephine gets drugs at home daily from a Health Care Worker (the local CORP). She would like for others like herself to seek help too also for the government to build a hospital near her market.
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.
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.
For more stories compiled by field staff and and volunteers, download these files.
| Chat Stories From the Field - Fencia |
| CHAT Volunteer Stories Alistair Bestow |
| CHAT Stories from the field |
| CHAT Volunteers' Stories and Journals |
* All names and pictures have been changed to respect privacy
