Message-ID: <199506051321.GAA14097@cdp.igc.apc.org> Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 06:21:35 -0700 From: Tom Gray <mailto:tgray@IGC.APC.ORG> Subject: Zimbabwe's family-planning efforts are success To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
/* Written 4:31 AM May 2, 1995 by theearthtime in igc:earthtimes */ Title: Zimbabwe's family-planning efforts are success By Daniel J. Shepard Earth Times News ServiceHARARE, Zimbabwe--In this Southern African country, family planning used to be a dirty word. Once a tool of the white Rhodesian government, it took years after independence in 1985 and a commitment of government to rehabilitate the term.
According to Timothy J. Stamps, Zimbabwe's Minister of Health and Child Welfare, contraception was used by the Rhodesian Front on the "uncontrolled African population." He said it was seen as a political tool, "for the whites to keep down the masses, and on the liberation side, as a genocidal tactic."
In fact, he said, Rhodesia volunteered itself a testing ground for the injectible Depo-Provera. For some, like himself, who he describes as "a naive, proactive family planner," the drug seemed to be a great way to make contraceptives more available to women. But others, he said, had a different agenda. Women, once they had a baby, were forced by the government to have shots every three months.
On independence in 1980, the drug was banned.
Stamps said that the term family planning was dropped for five years, but with through the help of the nursing profession, who saw the perils of women having children too early and too frequently, along with the sister- in-law of President Robert G. Mugabe, who saw family planning as the route to emancipation for women, the concept of family planning was gradually rehabilitated.
Stamps said that since independence, the use of modern family planning methods has risen from 14 percent of married women to more than 42 percent in 1994. Virtually every woman in Zimbabwe, he said, is within 30 minutes travel time to a source of contraceptive supplies. At the core of that success, he said, was the development of a community based distribution system, that included people "going around like peddlers, just like they would with Coke."
In 1988, Stamps said a program was started to target men, sub-Saharan Africa's first public education program of its kind. It has had a result he said, with most men approving of the effort, and over half had talked with their partners about it. In addition, he said, an effort was made to train male midwives, to help look after pregnant women and babies.
Alex Zinanga, who heads the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, a sort of quasi-public outfit that handles family planning programs, the issue is not whether Zimbabwe has too many people. With 10.4 million people, he said, it is not a densely populated country. Rather, the country is grappling with endemic problems of poverty and unemployment, exacerbated by the fact that a substantial percentage of the population is under 19 years old. He said the country's efforts to overcome the racial history of family planning could serve as a useful model for other countries in Southern Africa, including Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Earth Times says:
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Excerpted from EcoNet, a nonprofit online system * * specializing in environmental issues. For further information on * * EcoNet membership, send any message to <mailto:econet-info@igc.apc.org>. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *