Marie Stopes International Organisation Nigeria (MSION), an NGO on Saturday said that insecurity was a major challenge to family planning implementation in the Northern States, including Kaduna.
MSION, is an international organisation seeking to improve reproductive health.
The North West Regional Manager of the organisation, Leonard Viashima, said this during the Family Health plus (FH+) close out and dissemination meeting in Kaduna.
Viashima said in 2016 the organisation only served 30,000 women of reproductive age with family planning services compared to previous years.
He said the drop in the number of people served was due to insecurity, though he acknowledged that other factors were also responsible.
“The luck we had was that we trained the midwives at the time. And the idea was for the people to have access to qualified trained personnel to be able to access family planning services and any other health care services in the community.
“But in the case people are running more for their lives, I’m not sure they would remember to visit the health facilities especially if they are not guaranteed of safety.
“We worked here for three years and within that period we were able to serve 182,000 women.
“From 2014 to 2015 we served 92,000 women. From 2015 to 2016 the number dropped.
“We only distributed family planning kits to 30,000.
“Of course, with insecurity some of the service providers based in Kaduna were probably not going there to work. And even if they were, there people won’t go there to support them.
Earlier, Kaduna State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Paul Dogo, said the state is overcoming the barrier of religious and cultural belief against family planning in the state.
Dogo, represented by Director Public Health, Dr. Ado Zakari said the ministry has engaged religious leaders in the process.
The commissioner for women affairs and social development, Hajiya Hafsat Baba assured the ministry of health of support towards mobilisation, creating awareness and sensitisation of the people to achieve the desired results of reducing maternal mortality in the state.
