Marie Stopes Sierra Leone has on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, engaged men on how to educate the female folks (women, sisters, daughters, girlfriends) about the benefits of Family Planning. The engagement took place in Kukuna, a town in Bramaia Chiefdom, Kambia District in the north of Sierra Leone.
Emmanuel Jah, the Service Marketing and Communication Manager, explained that, engaging men could help disseminate the message to the women in the chiefdom at a faster rate than they could do.
He expressed the fact that family planning is important for their health, adding that it manages resources, brings happiness, saves money and helps structure a family.
According to Emmanuel, there are three types of family planning which are all important to humans.
He said, “We have the short term method which includes condom, microgram and the long term method planning which includes the In-plants, aka ‘Captain Ban’, Coil, and the permanent planning method which includes Tubal ligation for women and Vasectomy for men. But the permanent planning method is yet to be used by Sierra Leoneans, but we could give it to those who need it.”
He encouraged girls of 18-years and above to take the family planning option of in-plants method which could serve them for over five years to avoid any unwanted pregnancy.
He reiterated that family planning has good and bad effects, and stated that, it usually stops women from seeing their menstrual period, causes stomach ache, saying “but that is not bad, it only happens for just a moment then come back to normal.”
He encouraged parents to structure their families by using family planning methods in order to have a happy home and family.
He said that at the end of the engagement they were able to form a Male Engagement Club in the chiefdom that consists of twenty volunteers who would be encouraging and discussing the benefits of family planning to women.
By Ibrahim S.Bangura
21/12/2020. ISSUE NO: 7969