A woman volunteering for her community
Ritha Ntihabose is a woman with a light skin colour, living in Rutegama ADP of Muramvya province, centre west of Burundi. Ritha is a rather quite woman who is confident with a convincing voice when she talks. She is volunteering to sensitize other women and their husbands of her community to practice birth spacing for better health of children and their mothers.
When she got married eight years ago, during pre-natal consultations, nurses talked to her about the benefits of birth spacing; she says. “Nurses’ teachings came at the right time for me” Ritha says smiling, “I did not feel well in my body with my first pregnancy” she recounts lifting up Tresor Igiraneza her one and half year-old boy who smiles with mum when he reaches the level of mum’s shoulders. Tresor is her second child she has after 8 years of marriage; Thierra Irakoze, her first child will be soon seven year-old girl who is getting ready to start primary school. This wouldn’t have happened, had not been birth spacing methods, she appreciates.
According to a demographic and health Survey in Burundi (DHS, 2010), the fertility rate remains high, it is 6.4, when contraceptive prevalence among married women is only 18%. This situation is so when the country witnesses a high maternal mortality: 499 /100, 000, one of the highest in the world. Child mortality is high as well, it is 96 deaths per 1,000 live births. This was some of the information shared with mothers who came for pre-natal consultations at Kaniga, Litha’s nearest health facility. Litha’s husband was accompanying her during those pre-natal consultations; husband liked teachings too.
Poverty and land contraction for their new household could not allow them to have many children and be able to fend for them if they did not practice birth spacing; mother says. “It is always hard to fend for even one child, Ritha spends a whole day away from family digging; she says. When Litha got exposed to the birth spacing methods teachings, they were not reaching many people in her community. “Such teachings were only given to people who went to health facilities, Jean Claude Ciza, World Vision Health technician field staff in the area says.
World Vision launched a birth spacing project that can benefit many people, Jean Claude continues. World Vision sat with community members to find out how more people can get exposed to these teachings and came up with an idea of reaching out to them where they are in their homes. Couples practicing birth spacing were selected to be model couples that teach others. Ritha and husband was one of the couples selected in their community to serve as model couples that teach others to practice birth spacing. WV’s birth spacing project started when Ritha was already sensitizing other couples to practice birth spacing. “People in the area wondered what was wrong with me, because I did not give birth to other children as other mothers were doing” Ritha says. There was nothing wrong with her, she explained to people, especially mothers who came to her; she recounts. She realized that many mothers were not practicing birth spacing not because they didn’t want to but they were lacking information.
Due to the lack of enough health facilities in some areas, mothers are delivering children home and are not consequently exposed to the birth spacing teachings. Ritha decided to be talking it over to them, she says. With World Vision support to model couples, Ritha is able to reach to more people. What is good beyond reaching out to them, she benefited from the capacity building with World Vision; she appreciates. Model couple approach is an effective way to teach family planning, Jean Claude Ciza explains. Model couples teach by example, they say what they live. This gives credit to what they say, Jean Claude says.
It is an approach of rapid impact, in a period of one year only, family planning rate went from 17 to 50 per cent in some areas of implementation. World Vision’s birth spacing project is funded by European Union and implemented in 5 out of the 18 Burundi provinces.