Nearly 70 percent of the Burkinabe population is under 25 years of age and birth control is insufficient. However, beyond the demographic problem facing this extremely poor country, family planning is essential to offer young women the choice of motherhood and administrative, social and medical follow-up of their children.
Within the framework of the PEPS program, set up in partnership with the NGO Terre des Hommes Lausanne and local associations, we are going to set up information and training programs for women on the following subjects: choice and monitoring of pregnancies, protection against domestic violence and declaration of births. The stakes are high because children whose births have not been registered cannot, for example, be enrolled in school, claim salaried employment or exercise their rights as citizens.
From a methodological point of view, we will rely on small local associations and administrative agents of the Civil Registry. At the same time, we are setting up the "School for Husbands", a system that has already proved its worth. These all-male discussion groups help to change men's views on women, children and family relationships... The aim is to engage men in voluntary action for the protection and health of their wives and children.
The activities will take place in the Mouhoun loops vast and largely rural expanse of the North West Burkina Faso.
This project, which began in February 2019, is very large in scope as it will reach 215,000 women, 900,000 parents of students, 2,700 families, 4,500 men, and more than 1 million youth and adolescents.
April 2019
