TCI calls for more awareness on reproductive health
The Director of the Challenge Initiative (TCI), John Hopkins Centre for Communication Dr. Victor Igharo, has called on Nigerians of reproductive age to access reproductive health services for improved quality of life health and wellbeing.
Igharo made the call in an interview with Journalists after a four-day training on policy briefs development for some stakeholders from Gombe, Osun, Lagos, Kwara, Nasarawa and Edo States held in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said the benefits of reproductive health services are enormous, “It reduces maternal morbidity and mortality and it also help improve general quality life of families, children can go to school.
“When children are well spaced the woman rest, the husband is happy because he can distribute his resources well, we have better completion rate for education.”
The DTCI added that “ we belief that no woman should lose her life bringing life, everyone has the right to have access to reproductive health services they desire such that they can decide how many children they want, when and how.”
He urged people to embrace family planning saying it a new technology of enhancing maternal mortality and improving quality of life noting that it is not a westernization agenda.
“The world is changing into new technology just the way before we use desktop but now mobile phones that is the same way health and social services also evolve. It is not a plan to depopulate or disfranchise anyone,” the director added.
Igharo called on government at all levels to see the need to invest in family planning, explaining that if citizens are denied such services, the economy of the nation would be strained.
Shedding light on the four day policy brief training, the DTCI said is to craft communication messages that appeal to stakeholders mandates and provides justification as to why they should promote family planning.
He said the workshop brought together some of the TCI partner states to help them have a tool that can be used in engaging stakeholders.
Igharo said, ”The policy briefs developed are to be used for implementation and not to be kept in the shelf.”
The DTCI said the family planning situation in Nigeria has multi changes from poor funding to issues of norms, religious and social cultural barriers, legislation to promote and support the sustainability and scale up service hence, the development of policy briefs to address the barriers.
