Baringo County government has been urged to support Community Based Distributors (CBDs) in order for them to offer sexual and reproductive information and family planning services at grassroots level with ease.
The Chief Community Based Distributor in the Department of Reproductive and Maternal Health (DRMH) Hambulle Mohammed lamented that distributors in the county were facing challenges attending to clients at community level due to inadequate contraceptives at their disposal.
Mr Mohamed who is also the National trainer of CBDs said that the problem has heavily contributed to the county lagging behind in terms of access to family planning services with coverage standing at 38 per cent compared to the national ratings of 60 per cent.
Mr Mohamed was speaking during a graduation ceremony of 47 CBDs in Kabarnet on Wednesday.
The participants were drawn from Tiaty and Koibatek sub counties graduated after undergoing three-weeks training on family planning and reproductive maternal health.
The graduands were able to visit and offer services to 3,800 clients in hard to reach areas of the county where they managed to administer injections without any adverse effects to more than 1,900.
Mr Mohamed urged the county administration to team up with other partners like population services (PS) Kenya and Delivering Equitable and Sustainable Increases in Planning (DESIP), a UK Aid funded programme, in ensuring that CBDs get continuous support of family planning commodities to boost their work at the field.
“I am urging Baringo County government to take up the responsibility of stocking all health facilities with contraceptives so that the CBDs can also support other medical practitioners at community level,” he said.
The Chief CBD while speaking during World Contraceptives day noted that with proper interventions in place the county will be at par with other devolved units in terms of access to contraceptives.
DESIP Programme Director, Dr Josephine Kinyua while reiterating the sentiments, expressed the need of family planning information and services during this period when country is grappling with the effects of Covid -19 pandemic.
Dr Kinyua noted that women, especially the young, need to access modern contraceptive methods to allow them to wait for the recommended two years before having another child so that their bodies can have a chance to recover and reduce the risk of poor birth outcomes.
Baringo Governor’s wife Ivy Kiptis encouraged men to also embrace family planning methods so that they can effectively plan for their families.
Mrs Kiptis pointed out that there were some men in the society who do not buy the idea of family planning and are even hostile to CBOs which advocate for voluntary family planning methods as a sure way of slowing down population growth.
At the same time, the governor’s wife advised the CBDs to uphold the highest level of professionalism in their work to avoid discrepancies which come about with careless administration of contraceptives.
County Director of Preventive and Promotive Health, Dr Patrick Boroet, encouraged women and girls in the region to embrace hospital delivery where they are well handled thus reducing maternal deaths.
By Benson Kelio and Joshua Kibet
