By Cyriacus Nnaji
The Challenge Initiative TCI, spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with massive transformative approach to providing vigorous reproductive health services has taken the successes it has achieved in family planning uptake in Lagos State a step further as it took the FP sensitisation to Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos, a predominantly cosmopolitan population.
Designed to highlight the importance of family planning, provide accurate information, address common myths and misconceptions, allow interactive discussion and feedback, the community engagement was also meant to ensure that awareness of FB reaches the nook and cranny of the urban communities.
The latest outing which took place on Salami Street in Ajeromi, on Saturday, August 31, 2024, was also in consonance with TCI’s latest initiative of FP Lagos Intensification phase that talks seriously on the importance of family planning and enhancing a better understanding of family planning methods and its uptake.
Ajeromi Ifelodun, is a highly populated cosmopolitan part of Lagos State known for its high birth rate, children and adolescents pregnancies; it is also made up of artisans, factory workers, school dropouts. All these factors and many others have led to indiscriminate pregnancies among the young while the married ones find it difficult to access family planning facilities due to their jobs, trades and other engagements. There is also report of many patronizing traditional birth attendants (TBAs) which in most cases go awry.
With this scenario, the Challenge Initiative TCI known for its business unusual approach to help local communities take up family planning went to Salami area of Ajeromi Ifelodun LGA predominantly populated by the Hausas; this effort attracted massive response by the people, a testament of their willingness to embrace family planning uptake.
Oluoma Imasoba, 38 years old mother of four is a satisfied user having taken injectables previously and now on second implant which will expire in December, “I am 38, I have four children, a girl and three boys. I have used injections, three, three months, but now I am using implant, three years implant and this is the second implant I am using and it will expire this December.”
Ya’Ani Hassan, 32, with five boys, she is still looking for a girl child. She disclosed that through the help of family planning she spaced her children by three years. She added that she was on injectable twice and implant once. “I have five boys, I gave them three years space each, I have done family planning twice, I take injection for three months, after the third child I took implant, I didn’t see any negative reaction. After I removed it, two months I got pregnant. That is why I came to take another one, after I can decide whether to have another baby or not because I am still looking for a girl-child. I just gave birth to a baby just five months ago. Family Planning is very helpful, just to space your children, you will eat well, the child too will grow well. My husband is in support because we are Hausa, we do things according to our husband’s instructions.”
Hajia Amina Abubakar, a business woman and one of the BOT Chairpersons, Arewa Community Forum in Ajeromi Community. Speaking on the importance of the community engagement said, “It is to create awareness to our community about family planning or let me say, child spacing. Due to the situation in the country now everybody needs to know more about child spacing so that we can give our children good training, provide their daily needs, save them from malnutrition due to lack of money. If you space your children, you will be able to take good and quality care of them. If you look around our community it is an ancient community but now we are having literate people so things are no longer like before when people give birth indiscriminately.”
On her part Chidimma Ekeh TCI Technical Support Lead for Private Sector Engagement who stood in for TCI, Lagos Manager, Dr Omotunde Odanye, said, “We work with the local Government Family Planning Manager, and through her collaboration, we have become aware of the high unmet needs in Ajeromi Ifelodun, and we put measures in place to help the local government mitigate these unmet needs. But we still find out there are gaps, especially among the Hausa Community, these come in form of language barrier, religious barrier and traditional beliefs, so basically that is what informed this community engagement. There are numerous Hausa Communities but we are taking them one at a time.”
Ekeh admitted that the number of people that attended the engagement programme was impressive. “The turnout is impressive, and we believe it could be more because many would pick up methods, go home and tell others who will come later.”
She also disclosed that the TCI came to the engagement programme with all the approved family planning methods for Nigeria. “We came with all the family planning methods that are approved methods for Nigeria, we have the male and female condoms, the implants, IUDs, the injectables and we have pills. What we are implementing right here in the field are the pills, the condoms, the implants, and the injectables. Then for the IUDs because it is a very private procedure we would be referring them to the closest health center where that would have to be provided.”
Omoteji Iyetunde Afsat from the Lagos State Primary Health Board and the Family Planning and Reproductive Health Officer in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government. She disclosed that people of the local government are aware of FB and they have been seeking various methods by patronizing the family planning facilities in the area.
Asked to estimate the number of people that seek for family planning in the local government she said, “It depends on the facility; we have facilities that have high volume of clients. Like in a week we have 50 or even more than 50 in a week in a particular facility.” She added that the age brackets of those who seek for family planning in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government is between age 20 and 42. “Majority of them are married women and there are also unmarried ladies still coming to patronise the facilities.”
Mrs Omoteji said even though a lot of women attended the community engagement some others still complained that their husbands did not allow them to attend being a predominantly Moslem community. ”You can imagine even this particular place, this morning, some are telling us that their husbands did not allow them, not minding we are within their community, how much more if we asked them to come to the facilities, so they would not come, so that is what we noticed that they are not coming to the facility, that is why we brought the service to them.”
