No fewer than 8,000 women have been trained on self-injecting methods through a sexual and reproductive health programme by the Society For Family Health across the 13 local government areas of Nasarawa State.
The DISC project social behavior change coordinator in Nigeria, Micheal Titus, disclosed this in Lafia.
DISC project is a five-year sexual and reproductive health programme implemented by the SFH, with funding from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and support from the Population Services International.
Mr. Titus said the project had enabled women to initiate and advance their self-care by self-injecting at the comfort of their homes, market places and offices.
He said the initiative had helped women to overcome the hindrances attached to accessing healthcare facilities for the three months period of taking injectables.
He said the DISC project was able to train healthcare providers in empathy counseling and other necessary training in order to boost their confidence in attending to women of reproductive age especially as it concerns family planning.
The commissioner for health in the state, Dr. Gaza Gwamna, commended the Society For Family Health for the DISC project which was aimed at supporting women to assume greater power and control over their sexual and reproductive health by using contraceptive self-care methods.
He said the initiative had helped in mitigate the prevalence rate of maternal and child mortality across the state
Reproductive and family planning coordinator in the state Ministry of Health, Salome Vincent-Aya, said, “The DISC project came to support what we have already been doing in the state, and this has led to a lot of women now embracing the self-injecting method.”