Lack of Family Planning Promotion in Chapananga Area

By Aubrey Alphonse Ligomeka

As a way of promoting Sexual Reproductive Health services in Chikwawa district under the Traditional Authority (T/A) Chapananga in the Southern Region of Malawi, a youth led charity organisation known as Community Forum Organisation (COFO) through its awareness campaigns, is implementing a project called ‘Thanzi La Onse’, which aims to ensure women have easy access to Sexual Reproductive Health services in the district.

According to the Executive Director of COFO, Mr. Joshua Malunga, the organisation conducted research in conjunction with all concerned stakeholders and discovered that a lot of young women and youth lack knowledge on the necessary information concerning Sexual Reproductive Health services in the district respectively.

He continued by saying that some women delay going to the hospital, whilst other women do not even bother to go to the hospital when it’s time for delivering, as they prefer to deliver in their respective homes, with the help of untrained community midwives.

Mr. Malunga then gave an example of a certain young lady aged 27, with three children, and expecting to give birth to the forth baby in 2019. Because she delayed for five days to access medical treatment at Chapananga hospital at the ‘right time’ before delivering, she faced problems that even nurses could not treat during the birth. Rather than referring the mother a transfer to Chikwawa hospital for an operation, she experienced a miscarriage. Since 2019 up to now the mother has been suffering from *fistula and this is as a result of the lack of Sexual Reproductive Health services in the region.

Therefore, the Community Forum Organisation (COFO), which promotes for the livelihoods and also health and well-being of the community members, is appealing to well wishers to help women like the young mother (lady on the picture), with necessary support, to get the required medical treatment for fistula.

For more information contact:

Mr. Joshua Malunga

The Director

Community Forum Organisation (COFO)

Dyeratu Trading Centre

Post Office Box 198

Chikwawa

Malawi

Cell: + 265 888 451 874, + 265 999 451 874, + 265 882 272 625

Email: cofomw@gmai.com

*Fistulas form when inflammation causes sores, or ulcers, to form on the inside wall of the intestine or nearby organs. Those ulcers can extend through the entire thickness of the bowel wall, creating a tunnel to drain the pus from the infected area. An abcess, or a collection of pus, can also cause a fistula to form.

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