Passaris: Family planning the route to healthy children
Nairobi Woman Rep Esther Passaris during the launch of 'Orange the World: End Violence against Women' campaign in Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) grounds on November 23 last year. She has urged women to adopt family planning to ensure healthy families.
What you need to know:
- The Nairobi woman representative spoke during a meeting of female aspirants, representatives from government entities and civil society in Nairobi.
- Ms Passaris said she will partner with Nairobi County in sensitising women and girls to maternal healthcare and sexual and reproductive health.
Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris has called on women to adopt family planning to enable them to raise healthy children.
“You cannot have eight children when you are jobless. Those children are going to suffer. And so, as women, we have to talk [about] family planning,” she said during a meeting of female aspirants, representatives from government entities and civil society in Nairobi.
The event, held on March 3, was organised by the Ministry of Gender, Nairobi County and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services in partnership with 12 other civil society groups.
She said her office has secured Sh6 million from a US organisation to undertake an ‘inform and transform campaign’, mainly targeting women and girls.
Ms Passaris said she will partner with Nairobi County in sensitising women and girls to maternal healthcare and sexual and reproductive health.
Rights
Last year, Kenya marked the second anniversary of the Nairobi Summit in which the country’s leadership committed to 17 initiatives aimed at advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls.
As per the commitments made by President Uhuru Kenyatta during the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25), the county will have zero unmet need for family planning information and services by 2030, alongside ensuring universal availability of quality, accessible, affordable and safe modern contraceptives.
Kenya has 14 million women and girls of reproductive age, an increase by three million in eight years, according to the Family Planning 2020 report. In 2012,there were 11 million women and girls aged 15-49.
But in 2020, only 5.97 million women and girls of the reproductive age were using contraceptives which is nevertheless an increase from 5.82 million in 2019.
