Family planning and prevention

Family planning is available in Ghana, and plenty of people who want it do not use it. The reasons we hear are rarely about cost. They are about a side effect somebody's cousin had, a belief that contraception causes permanent infertility, and the fear of being seen walking in.

We run open sessions for adults and for couples on what the methods actually are, how each one works, what it does and does not do to future fertility, and how to choose between them. Alongside that we cover how sexually transmitted infections and HIV are passed on and prevented, and what a test actually involves, because the two conversations belong together and splitting them up is how the stigma survives. Every session runs with the nearest clinic, so anyone who wants a method or a test has somewhere to go that same afternoon.

Running the sessions jointly is what turns interest into an appointment. When we ran them alone, people asked good questions and then nothing happened. Attendance is still overwhelmingly women. Men make most of the decisions being discussed and attend the least, and until that changes we are only having half of the conversation.