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Promoting Healthy Families in Northern Nigeria   
Mar. 30, 2010 — Sadia Yusuf (pictured right) walks confidently through the streets of Minjibir, Nigeria distributing family planning and reproductive health information and services to improve the health of the people in this community. She is a traditional birth attendant for the Women Health and Development Network and was one of the community-based distributors for CEDPA’s “Kyautatawa Iyali” (Family Welfare) Project. A short time ago, Sadia would have been looked upon with disfavor by the highly conservative community for promoting family planning. Family planning was thought of as against religious and traditional beliefs in northern Nigeria, which is predominately Muslim. Women in Nigeria have a 1 in 18 lifetime risk of dying in childbirth, among the highest risk in the world. The risk is especially great in the project target area of northern Nigeria, where early marriage and child bearing, closely spaced and frequent pregnancies, inadequate health care and the lack of family planning and reproductive health services take a heavy toll on women’s health. Through the contribution of local partners, highly respected religious leaders and community champions in the states of Bauchi, Plateau and Kano, the Family Welfare Project has increased the use of community-based family planning and reproductive health services over its 10-year duration. The project implemented a three-pronged approach partnering with community leaders to incorporate local cultures and traditions in its programs. CEDPA and its partners targeted their advocacy efforts towards religious, traditional and political leaders to gain greater acceptance of family planning. A critical component of the success was an endorsement from the Chief Imam of the Islamic community. He clarified that modern contraceptive methods were desirable for birth spacing to ensure the well-being of mother and child, and that is different from birth limitation which is not condoned by Islam.
In addition, community volunteers and partners distributed informational posters and pamphlets at scheduled reproductive health rallies promoting the health and welfare of families and the community. Radio and television programs were also used to address reproductive health issues including family size, sexually-transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS and delayed marriage. To strengthen institutions, CEDPA worked with its partners to train clinical staff in family planning and reproductive health technical issues, interpersonal communication, youth-friendly services and referral systems. CEDPA also held regular meetings between community-based distributors and clinical staff to facilitate dialogue, promote cross learning and build stronger linkages across the referral network. At the individual level, the project included community health extension workers, traditional birth attendants, male motivators and youth peer educators to educate community members on reproductive health and family planning, make referrals and supply commodities. The use of male motivators and traditional birth attendants, like Sadia, allowed services to reach parts of the community that were traditionally closed off to health workers. The increase in community acceptance and usage of family planning services can be attributed to community-based distributors like Sadia. A marker of the success of the project is that more than 245,000 clients received family planning information and commodities in northern Nigeria over its 10 years. CEDPA’s many partners report that this has resulted in increased birth spacing to healthier intervals, healthier births and lives saved. CEDPA’s Family Welfare project was made possible through the generous support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Read more about CEDPA’s work in Nigeria. |
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