Advocates trained by the UN population fund (UNFPA) have launched a campaign to ensure reproductive health care and community well-being in the sixteen chiefdoms in the Kenema District.
Addressing a well-attended meeting of community people in Niawa Chiefdom, one of the participants, Musu Aruna said the intervention of the Advocates to help sensitize them on reproductive health issues had helped reduce the risk of maternal mortality.
She said they had sensitized them a lot on issues like early marriage, family planning, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. She urged donors to increase support for the advocates as it was one such programme the entire people in their chiefdom especially the women highly appreciated.
The Regional Gender Desk Officer, East, Agnes Luseni commended the Advocates, saying the aim of the Ministry of Social welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs and the UNFPA was to improve on reproductive health care in the Kenema district. She called on women especially pregnant women to always consult the advocates for necessary advice.
Agnes admonished the people to desist from early and forceful marriage, violence against women, and under-aged female circumcision which is outlawed. She said other chiefdoms had organized similar sensitization meetings but that the Niawa one was “extremely well organized and well attended”.
(c) Politico 25 October 2012
