Sierra Leone News: Marie Stopes Launches Back to School Promo
By Mariama Sesay
Marie Stopes Sierra Leone has on Tuesday September 24, 2019, launched the third edition of its ‘Back to School Promo’ at their headquarters, Aberdeen in Freetown.
The promotion will reach women and girls with quality, personalized and confidential family planning services of choice free of user fees from September 23, through October 26, 2019.
The services which will be provided during the promotion include Long and Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) specifically IUD (Coil), implant (Captain Band) and cervical cancer screening including sexual reproduction health counseling, and free STI screening and treatment.
The promotion is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), UNFPA, and Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
The Country Director of Marie Stopes Sierra Leone, Dr Ufuoma Festus Omo-Obi said that the educational policy of government can’t be achieved if pupils and students are not retained in school to complete their education.
According to the 2015 Housing and Population Census, young people under the age of 15 account for approximately 41.1 percent of the current population of Sierra Leone.
Dr Omo-Obi said this very large number of young generation need to have access to sexual and reproductive health services including family planning and the knowledge and skill necessary to make adequate, healthy and informed decisions about their lives.
He said that despite all the government pronouncements, young Sierra Leoneans continue to face serious barriers to accessing life-saving contraceptives and family planning services.
He said that Marie Stopes Sierra apply successful approaches to strategically integrate facility planning and build upon existing platforms across broad areas of Reproductive, Maternal , Newborn, Child and Adolescent Heath (RMNCAH). “We also have efficaciously adopted key provisions of the National Strategy for the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Marriage 2018–2022, which aims at reducing the adolescent fertility rate to 74 per 1,000, and the percentage of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union before the age 18 to 25 percent by 2022,” he said.
Dr Omo-Obi said that the back to school promo is intended to protect the already sexually active adolescent from encountering any form of unintended pregnancy. “Free long-active reversible contraceptive service are provided during the promo period backed with sexuality awareness education,” he said.
Dr Omo-Obi said, “Only by making family planning compulsory can we avert the danger posed by this problem. This must have the wholehearted support of each one of us. We must rise above our narrow precincts of superstition and religion, to make it a success. Posterity will never forgive us, if we do not measure up to this task.”
He called on the Government of Sierra Leone to provide the needful resources and enabling environment for women and girls to access adequate and quality contraception, and empower them with the information they need to choose the method that is right for them.
