The Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) is commemorating this year’s World Contraceptive Day with focus on teenage pregnancies and protection.
By Varaidzo Muzonzini
The annual event was started in 2007 with a vision to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted and planned the mission being to improve awareness of contraception with more emphasis on enabling young people both males and females to make informed decisions on sexual as well as reproductive health and rights.
“The major focus is based on the fact that a majority of teenage pregnancies are unplanned and every year people get infected with Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) due to inadequate information and how to protect themselves. Family planning empowers women and girls and helps save lives,” said Karen Dzuke ZNFPC Midlands Provincial Manager.
She also noted that pregnancy should be by choice not by chance and with the hardships of the economy family planning is essential inorder to have a manageable family.
“Our goal is to reap demographic dividend in the youthful Zimbabwean population, it is essential to invest more in young people to have a productive nation and family planning can help to achieve it and breach the information gap, eliminate the misconceptions on family planning among the youth through Comprehensive Sexuality Information,” she added.
This year the ZNFPC has commemorated the World Contraception Day in a different way by providing free services f moving in different suburbs around Gweru under the theme ‘Its your life, it’s your responsibility’
“This year we are introducing a new contraceptive, the Sayana Press which is an injectable just like Depo. Sayana Press is effective for 3 months, one can stop using it and can conceive normally,” said Provincial Marketing and Communications Officer Nyashadzashe Marima.
He added that family planning is not only a health issue but also a developmental issue, and they are working with Population Services Zimbabwe (PSZ), Population Service International(PSI) among others and women are free to choose any Institute to visit for services.
