DAR ES SALAAM: THE Scaling Up Family Planning programme has benefited over two million women and youths through creating awareness on matters of sexual and reproductive health in several regions in the past five years.
This initiative, implemented by EngenderHealth, supports government’s efforts in improving sexual and reproductive health services in public hospitals from the primary level.
The programme’s impact was recently revealed at a Science Communication Engagement event held in Dar es Salaam, an event that is a countdown to the 11th Tanzania Health Summit (THS) scheduled for early October in Zanzibar.
Experts from various local and international organisations gathered at the event to share their work’s impact on Tanzanian communities.
Country Representative of the EngenderHealth, Dr Moke Magoma, told the `Daily News’ recently that the awareness education based on making the women and youth make right decisions considering Tanzania’s customs and tradition while enabling friendly health services for these groups, including the People with Disabilities (PWDs).
“Out of the total beneficiaries, 16 per cent are youths between the age of 10 and 19 years old while one per cent are people with disabilities,” Dr Magoma pointed out.
Apart from it, the programme trained health service providers in move aimed at building their capacity on providing better services to the youth and PWDs as well as enabling the integrated reproductive health services in government’s primary health facilities.
“We have trained them on how to screen people to determine the type of disabilities they have, so that they offer services with consideration of the identified disability,” he added.
Dr Magoma explained that initially the programme, which started in 2019, supposed to end in August this year, but it has been extended for more two years until 2026.
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Commenting, Mr Simon Mbele, EndangerHealth’s advisor on gender, youth and social inclusion, said the gender and youth issues have been at the centre of the programme implementation while also looking at oppressive culture and traditions impeding the women and youth to make right decisions on issues of sexual reproductive health.
“We have empowered the youth and women by giving them right information. There is a big correlation between the use of family planning methods and gender issues,’ explained Mr Mlange.
On his part, Mr Ramadhani Mlange, EndangerHealth’s senior manager of clinical services, added that the programme also has a component of environment protection.
“We have built capacity among health staff on how to handle medical wastes so that they do not pollute the environment as well as proper procurement of medical devices and drugs basing on the Health Management Information Systems (HMIS),” explained Mr Mlange.
The project has been advocating for inclusive HMIS to bridge the gap and create a more equitable healthcare landscape in Tanzania.
Ms Lilian Lukumai, EngenderHealth’s Programme Manager, emphasized the importance of addressing the data gap.
“Inclusive services are critical for addressing the inequalities in service access,” she said.
“By supporting both routine and outreach services, and advocating for the development of relevant tools to capture PWDs data in HMIS, we’re empowering PWDs to access the essential sexual and reproductive services they deserve.”