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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As a part of its reproductive health advocacy in Nigeria, Pathfinder International at the weekend urged the Kaduna State Government to deploy female condoms to all the primary health facilities in the State to prevent unintended consequences.
Programme Officer, Reproductive Health and Family Planning for Pathfinder International in Nigeria, Kosi Izundu appealed while fielding questions from newsmen on the sideline of a one-day community outreach on female condom 2 held at Primary Health Centre, Sabon Tasha, Chikun Local Government Area of the State.
According to her, it is cheaper for the State to invest in reproductive health to prevent unintended consequences such as unmanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, gonorrhea among others.
She added that her organisation is currently implementing the female condom project with support from a female health company and as a result, “we have come to Kaduna to train health workers in eight LGAs on the female condom 2.
Today, those we have trained are the I’d that organised this sensitization programme where they educate members of this community on female condom 2 as a method of choice for women of reproductive age so they can be able to prevent unintended pregnancy as well as STIs.
“Female condom 2 is an improved version of female condom 1 based on the feedback the manufacturer got from the users of the female condom 1. We have also received feedback on how the female condom 2 can be made better especially in comparison with the make condom so women can have choices to be able to protect themselves and at the same time uphold their reproductive health.
“The target is women of reproductive age from the age 15 to 45. We also look towards adolescents because when they get the right information early, they can make better decisions as they grow older.
“Generally, the male condoms are popular. Many people are surprised when they see the female condom for the first time because they are not readily available. For some, female condoms are expensive to buy which is why we advocate for making them free at government health facilities.
“So, we are calling on the government to make the female condoms available free of charge in all the public health facilities whereby when people demand for them they are readily available at the facilities”, she explained.
Earlier, one of the Family Planning providers at PHC Sabon Tasha, Fatima Jibrin, said, “we have several adolescents (age 10 – 24) here today. Let me make it abundantly clear that we are not promoting promiscuity.
“All we are doing is to equip them with knowledge on how they can prevent unintended pregnancy and to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and luckily for us, this facility is one of the adolescent-friendly facilities and that is why we have a lot of them here”.
