SOUTHERN PROVINCE

HUYE —  About 20  health personnel drawn from different secondary health posts in the districts of Gisagara, Nyanza and Huye, have received skills to improve their capacity in carrying out the family planning campaign.

The training was organized by the Ministry of Health in partnership with Intra-health. The secondary health posts operate near health facilities run by religious institutions that are against the use of contraceptives in family planning.

According to Alice Nyiramutoni, the facilitator of the training, participants were given counselling skills, information on how to administer family planning methods and how to manage secondary effects of certain contraceptives.

Ousmane Faye, an official of Capacity Project called upon participants to apply the knowledge acquired in helping their communities.

Rosine Bigirimana, Huye District health official, said there is need to strengthen the capacities of heath personnel working in secondary health posts in order to prevent population explosion.

"We have many heath facilities run by the Catholic Church in the district. Their refusal to allow family planning services in these health centres call for skilled personnel to run secondary health posts near such facilities,” said Bigirimana.

Jean de la Croix Niyorora of Simbi health centre blamed big families in the area on lack of awareness. "Very few people are responding to calls to embrace family planning. We need to do a lot more mobilisation,” said Niyorora.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, the number of women accessing family planning services increased from 17 percent at the beginning of 2006 to 50 percent in 2007.

An increasing population rate that is not commensurate with the growth of the economy is widely seen as a major challenge to the attainment of the country’s Vision 2020.

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