Family planning marking tracks for a better life (Population and Development )
Jul 16, 2015
When Clauphas Nyakana met Grace Abisemeza, he had a plan. He would marry her, have two or three children and lead a good life. He married her in 1989 in Kabarole.
By Caroline Ariba
When Clauphas Nyakana met Grace Abisemeza, he had a plan. He would marry her, have two or three children and lead a good life. He married her in 1989 in Kabarole.
Twenty-six years later, the couple has eight children, six more than he had planned. No doubt, Nyakana and Abisemeza love each one of their children, but it was not in their plan to have as many. So what went wrong?
The chatty Nyakana goes silent for a bit, looks at his wife, hoping that she can chip in, and she does.
“We wanted few children, but we did not know about family planning,” the soft-spoken Abisemeza says. “I only discovered family planning when it was late,” she confesses.
The 42-year-old had her first child when she was 18, and her husband was 22.
“I used to have child after child and leave the rest to God,” Abisemeza says.
She and her husband knew they had to stop having more children, but to them, that meant abstaining from sex, which was not a viable solution. Even when they heard about family planning, the myths seemed to overshadow the good that came with it.
“We heard that when some women in the village used it, they would not stop bleeding,” Nyakana narrates.
It was not until 2002 that the couple revisited the idea of family planning. In addition to their eight children, they now had many other family members to take care of. They sought the guidance of a non-government organisation, Reproductive Health Uganda, for a suitable birth control method.
“Indeed, it worked and madam did not have problems with it,” Nyakana says, gleefully.
Today, Abisemeza and Nyakana live in a semi-permanent structure, but know they could have led a better life if they had had fewer children.
NYAKANA’S JOURNEY
Nyakana had experienced the burden of a large family early in life and had decided not to have many children.
A first born in a family of seven, Nyakana had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings children when his father died.
Though he had inherited four acres of land he had to drop out of secondary school in order to provide for his brothers and sisters.
But there was only so much a young Nyakana could do, so his siblings, too, dropped out of school.
When Nyakana had his own children, he wanted a better life for them.
“I saved some money and started a small business to make life better,” he says.
Luckily, since his children went to schools under the Universal Primary Education programme, he saved enough money to buy extra land.
“But this was only possible when my wife stopped having children and we concentrated on those that we had,” he confesses.
This, however, meant basic living conditions for his children. One thing Nyakana was sure his children understood was that the next generation of his family would have to be better than his.
“I told them that I did not want a repeat of history. I did not want to see anyone depending on someone else, but themselves,” he says as his wife nods in approval.
To achieve this, however, the couple had to invest in their children’s education so as to ensure that they can make wise decisions.
“I had my first child when I was still a teenager. I did not use family planning to control the number of children,” Abisemeza says. She says she trusts her daughters will do better and have the number of children they can give the best of life.
Abisemeza’s 21-year-old daughter, Lydia Ngonzi, has just completed her teaching course at Mubende Teachers’ College. She does not want more than two children. When asked when she would start having children, Ngonzi responds: “When I am ready.”
She explains what she means by being ready. “When I can take care of them,” Ngonzi says.
She hopes to acquire assets, study more and then have children. To achieve this, Ngonzi says she will have to embrace family planning when she gets married.
Several kilometres away from Fort Portal town is her brother, Richard Winyi, an engineer with Hima Cement. Although nearly 25 years old, Winyi is concentrating on making his life better, acquiring land and making sure he leads a better life than the one his parents could afford. He does not have a child yet.
WHAT EXPERTS SAY
Christopher Arinaitwe, a service provider with Reproductive Health Uganda, based in Kabarole district, says family planning can be used as a tool for achieving a quality population.
“All our clients have not more than four children and this is because they joined late,” he starts.
Arinaitwe says previously, their clients sought family planning because they had had many children and badly wanted to stop.
“Today, however, people seek family planning because they want the number of children they can manage,” he says.
According to Arinaitwe, although men still lag Mugerwabehind when it comes to embracing family planning, the women will do anything to access it.
“The women are getting sneakier and taking onto methods that they can hide from their partners, such as injections,” he says.
His colleague, Irene Kugonza, also a service provider with Reproductive Health Uganda, says many women are opting for long-term methods.
“When the office was starting out, many of our clients wanted short-term contraceptive methods. They now opt for long-term methods,” she says.
Kugonza notes that 70% of the women who seek family planning services choose implants, because these can be effective for up to five years.
In a report titled “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend accelerating social economic transformation in Uganda” by the National Planning Authority the demographic dividend is defined as the accelerated economic growth that may result from a decline in a country’s mortality and fertility and the subsequent change in the age structure of the population.
The report, among other strategies, states that accelerating fertility reduction should see Uganda achieve this goal.
The Netherlands Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights ambassador, Lambert Grijns, agrees that demographic transition is a key element to achieving sustainable economic growth.
He cites examples from other regions, for instance, east Asia and southern Asia, which have shown that demographic changes need to be accompanied by sufficient investments in education and jobs to cater for an expanding work force.
“Fertility decline should not be a goal in itself, but could be the result of women and men having more direct access to family planning commodities and services, so that they can better decide how many children they have, when and with whom,” he says.
Jaldesa argues that information should not only be availed to those who seek it, but even to those who should be using it. He adds that aside from maternity visits, officials should meet women in all parts of the country and sensitise them about contraceptives.
Data released by the US Population Reference Bureau in 2013 stated that 10% of youth aged 20 to 24 were married by the age of 15 years and 40% were married by the time they were 18 years. This means that half of the youth aged 20 to 24 in Uganda are married by 18 years. The bureau stated that of every 1,000 adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years, 124 have had children, and that this could be attributed failure to complete education.
Currently, the Population Secretariat places Uganda’s population at nearly 35 million people, with a fertility rate of about 6.2. To harness a quality population, a country needs to have a self-replacement level, which should be no more than two. At 6.2, Uganda fails miserably. However, when one meets a family like that of Nyakana, this dream is achievable through their children.
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