X-From_: tgray  Wed Nov 11 09:50:31 1992
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Date:         Wed, 11 Nov 1992 09:50:41 PST
Reply-To:     Tom Gray <tgray@IGC.APC.ORG>
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From:         Tom Gray <tgray@IGC.APC.ORG>
Subject:      IPS: Cycling & Family Planning

/* Written 12:08 am  Oct 25, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary
*/
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ZIMBABWE: CYCLING TO PROMOTE FAMILY PLANNING


an inter press service feature

by joe bankole

harare, oct 22 (ips) -- florence chakanyuka, who is in her 40s,
has clocked more than 1,000 km on her rusty black bicycle this
year alone.

her beat is to visit families in her chinamhora district, a
vast communal area some 20 ks north of this zimbabwean capital.

she is one of more than 1,000 family planning extension
workers working in their communities across zimbabwe. more than
70 percent of zimbabwe's estimated 11 million people live in the
rural areas.

affectionately called 'mbuya kuronga mhuri' (grannies for
family planning), the workers were selected by the state-run
zimbabwe national family planning council (znfpc). they each
have to cater for families within a 15-km radius of their
homestead.

''the single most important attribute we look for (in
selecting the workers) is they should be of good standing
in their respective communities and have references from
community leaders'', says znfpc director alex zinanga.

the workers are each provided with a bicycle, and a back-pack
for condoms, contraceptives and a blood pressure measuring kit.

''we require a minimum of seven years of education, but
increasingly many of our extension workers are secondary school
leavers'', zinanga told ips.

the workers undergo a three-month intensive training on how
to motivate couples to accept family planning methods and
contraceptive technology, and how to initiate services within
their communities.

the first extension workers started work in the 1970s before
zimbabwe's independence. but they were largely resented by the
majority blacks who saw them as agents of the white-minority
government of ian smith.

''it was only after independence in 1980 that the family
planning extension workers became more acceptable'', explains
zinanga.

now the znfpc employs more than 700 of the family planning
extension workers. industries in the agro-chemical and mining
sectors also employ about 300 such workers for the benefit of
their workers. (more/ips)


zimbabwe: cycling (2)

znfpc boasts to have been pivotal to scale down the country's
annual population growth rate from 3.2 percent in 1987 to about
2.8 percent this year -- contradicting u.n. population of fund
figure of 3.1 percent currently.

but critics of the znfpc, including the catholics who
constitute about 12 percent of the country's about 11 million
people, see the population control programme as western-induced
and immoral.

''the way they go about this population control reminds me
of pest control. it is too inhuman'', father oskar wermter,
secretary for social communications of the zimbabwe catholic
bishops conference, told ips.

''in the catholic church, we believe parents should be
responsible for the control of the family size and not the
government or international agencies breathing down on them'',
he explains.

the catholic church, wermter says, teaches couples to use
natural methods. modern family planning places the burden on the
woman alone, he adds.

zinanga disagrees. ''both husband and wife are involved. more
people are now coming to find out more about vasectomy, which
used to be a culturally no-go to be culturally a no-go area.

''although many still equate vasectomy with castration, we
get about 15 men who accept it every year'', add zinanga.

this year alone, the znfpc has distributed 10 million
condomns throughout the country, the bulk of them to men, says
zinanga.

other opponents of the family planning programme argue that
contraceptives reduce sexual enjoyment.

''this is particularly so among men'', says another znfpc
official, frank masakadza.

''the council will soon start educating men on various
methods of contraception in the hope of dispelling the notion
that contraceptives diminish sexual satisfaction'', adds
masakadza.

under its ambitious five-year programme, now in its second
year, the znfpc hopes to lower the population growth rate to
promote economic growth. (end/ips/jb/apc/92)

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