The government is training Community Health Workers (CHWs) in various Family Planning (FP) methods with the aim of controlling population growth and promoting mother and child health.

According to the coordinator of Maternal and Child Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Fidele Ngabo, the training of over 2,000 CHWs from various parts of the country is aimed at boosting their skills in promoting family planning in their respective communities.

"After the training, we believe that they will be able to carry out community-based distribution of condoms, cycle beads, oral contraceptive pills and injectables,” Ngabo explained during the training that is underway in Kigali.

According to statistics from the ministry, Rwanda has an annual population growth rate of 2.9 percent and a fertility rate of 5.6. These figures are still regarded as high by experts who called for more effective measures to control the population growth rate.

Ngabo also explained that family planning programs are also challenged by the fact that people still have misconceptions and negative myths regarding FP methods.

He also noted the continuous lack of male involvement in FP, hence most methods applied are skewed towards women, but added that efforts are in place to engage men in FP services citing that, in the past two months, the three doctors trained on no-scalpel vasectomy have so far performed 196 vasectomies.

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