New family planning campaign targets single mothers

A family planning campaign aiming to reduce birth rates among single mothers has been launched by an international organisation, Hope and Homes for Children (HHC).This is the same organisation that is partnering with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in re-integrating children from orphanages into their respective homes.An official with HHC, Innocent Habimfura, said that single motherhood has in the past heavily contributed to child abandonment.“Our findings indicate that most of the children we have been reintegrating from orphanages into families are from single parents especially mothers,” he said.With the reintegration programme, government’s plan is to have phased out all orphanages in the country by 2014. Children whose families cannot be traced will be put in foster families and will be supported by government through the National Children’s Commission.The launch of the new campaign that took place in Kicukiro district saw 80 single mothers complete a two day sensitisation session about the various family planning measures.“Due to constraints in supporting families or children, single mothers find themselves in hard situations that may eventually lead them to abandoning their children,” he said.Rita Kaburame, a resident of Gatenga sector is one of the single mothers who attended the training.The mother of three pointed out that family planning methods will relieve single mothers from the many burden that comes with bearing many children.“Some women end up having more children with other men after either divorcing or losing their partners to get support for children with the previous partners,” she said.She also warned and advised that instead of resorting to other men, single mothers should engage in income generating activities to take care of their families.