VERDE-Uganda

VERDE-Uganda is playing a role to educate women on birth control, use of contraceptives, and limitations to family sizes, extended families, child development issues ( including nutrition), control of sexually transmitted diseases and health care in reproductive health.

Since most of the sexually active people cannot read or write, our role is Educating and Counseling them to remove misconceptions associated with family Planning and Birth Control.

 

Village women attending a Family Planning and Reproductive Health meeting organized by VERDE-Uganda.

Literacy and Family Planning

Over 65 % of the people over 35 years of age in the rural areas where we work in Jinja and Tororo Districts cannot read or write.

A large majority of women are totally illiterate. A very small number of School girl drop-outs can scantly read. Therefore the concepts of birth control and other Family Planning Issues must be addressed by outreach in the communities. 

 

Cultural Perspectives and Family Planning

In these communities, in the Africa Contexts and Cultures, birth control and Family Planning are regarded as gross child limitations, abuse and contempt to the gifts of Nature.

As part of the cultural norm, the onus to have sex at anytime is on the man, whether the woman is in agreement or not. Therefore the number of children in a family traditionally has been solely the decision of the man, to whom the children are considered to belong.

VERDE-Uganda is counseling communities to remove miscoceptions associated with family planning and birth control.  We are working to train counseling teams, including home birth attendants, to reach out to the communities with information on birth control, contraceptives, limitations to family sizes, extended families, child development issues, control of STDs, and reproductive health generally. 

Nelson Obella, director of VERDE-Uganda, talks with women in the community about Family Planning, Child Development and Reproductive Health.

 

VERDE-Uganda's Mission for Family Planning Education

In our Rural Communities, Family Planning is regarded with contempt and as such, it is not easily acceptable because it is believed to undermine  old Cultures and Traditions which in most cases are primitive beliefs relating to family size limitations.

Using Contraceptives for checking the size of a rural family could be equated to curses and total abuse to status of a household. This means exerting a lot of effort to educate and convince the people  to demystify or rule out misconceptions associated with the assumed subsequent side effects of contraception including giving birth to children with physical deformities, cancers, barrenness, or even death while giving birth.

A lot of Mobilization, Counseling and Support, and outreach are required to change people's attitudes from their customary behavior to adopting the new tradition of limiting family size, to appreciate the negative side effects of after repeated or several pregnancies and child births, how Sexually Transmitted Diseases endanger their Reproductive abilities and other destructive reproduction dangers not known to the rural people.

We have emphasized the following contraception methods amongst others:

 

1. Family Planning Injection Method. This has proved very easy, positive and acceptable amongst the rural women because it is confidential to other of their spouses who may be opposed to family planning. Once an Injection is taken, it has no other instructions to follow or remember to adhere to.
2. Use of Condoms to Prevent Pregnancies and Protection against Sexually Transmitted Infections.  Acceptable but with a lot of resistance from men or both spouses because of the psychological attitudes of using condoms as they are always associated with prostitution.
3. Using Family Pills. Not readily acceptable by many because women believe that if error occurs while in use, the resultant pregnancy will be with a lot of problems as the child may have deformities/may not be normal.
4. Norplant Family Method. Fixed into a woman's arm for five years. This method would be good but it is only acceptable by few women who have gone to school or know a little bit of reading. Women also believe that five years in family planning method of this kind is too long a period.
5. Foam Tablet Method. Where a tablet is inserted into the vagina before sexual intercourse.  Very few women respond to this method.
6. Prolonged Breast Feeding Method. This is acceptable by many women but  not reliable to most of the illiterate women whose sexual timetables are dictated by their equally illiterate or drunkard husbands who will demand to have sexual intercourse as early as three/four weeks from the time of child birth.
7. Withdrawal Method. The man withdraws his erected penis at the time of ejaculations. This method is extremely unreliable because most often men will not allow such a thing to occur at the climax of his sexual excitements.
8. The Safe Period Method for Women. For rural women to adhere to this method is difficult because women have no sexual rights in the rural African Communities except in the cases where women are totally independent or widows, otherwise all the time they are subjected to forced sexual intercourse by their often drunkard or unlistening husbands.
9. Abstinence or Rhythm Method. The couple will agree when they should have sexual intercourse. This usually works in well to do or civilized families.
10. Vasectomy Operation / Tubal Ligation Method. Last resort methods when pregnancies and child births have become life threatening to  either the Mother or the Father or both of them, the operations will be advocated for in order to save threatened life.

We Educate people emphasizing on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and their Reproductive Health.

 

It is the obligation of the Staff of VERDE-Uganda and our Development Partners to Educate people on these Family Planning Methods whether they are acceptable in the communities or not. Our mandate is to bring to the people the right to chose whatever method they individually prefer.