Rivers State has taken a step closer to increasing family planning accessibility by training 30 community mobilisers through a joint initiative between the State Primary Health Care Management Board, Marie Stopes International (MSI), and supported by Population Services International (PSI).
The training will aim to increase awareness, increase demand, and increase family planning accessibility within Rivers’ 23 Local Government Areas.
The 2-day residential refreshers took place recently at Galaxy LA Palm Royal Resorts and brought together community mobilisers from the 23 LGAs working under the Discovering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC) 2.2 Project.
It aimed to improve demand generation at the community level by giving them up to date knowledge and skills to promote family planning.
Sayana Press, a self-injectable method, was one of the key topics discussed alongside general family planning methods and benefits, effective communication, and referral techniques from the community.
Participants were given communication skills to address any myths around family planning to increase community acceptance and uptake.
The training had 30 participants, with over 70% being female.
This will increase community engagement and improve personal communication to help mobilisers reach more members of their community. It will increase demand and improve referrals to health facilities.
The collaboration aims to increase community awareness and improve accessibility to family planning information and services, especially on a community level.
