The INFO Project Blog

If there’s ever a Mount Rushmore memorial built to honor heroes of family planning, the granite rock faces should be chisled with the features of community health workers like the women in pink, at left.

This woman, who works in a remote village in Rajasthan, India, promotes the use of family planning, educates families about HIV/AIDS, and encourages girls to go to school. The Veerni Project, a women’s empowerment group, trained her and other mostly-volunteer ”promoters” in each village.

I was reminded of these brave women, whose energetic work I observed while working with the Veerni Project a few years ago, in doing research for the upcoming issue of Population Reports, Elements of Successful Family Planning Programs. One key element of many successful programs? A mix of contraceptive service delivery points, facilitated by community agents like Veerni’s promoters.

In the case of CARE’s Extra Mile Initiative (EMI), which took place in eastern Madagascar–dubbed “the eight continent” for its rich biodiversity–community health agents overcame obstacles including flooded rivers and roadless districts to teach community members about methods to space their childrens’ births and limit family size. They were also tasked with training health center staff and local politicians. According to the Case Study, “the project’s very name indicated the additional effort CARE would need to invest just to reach the six communes–by motocycle, canoe and, mostly, on foot.” Luckily, the agents were cheerfully good-humored about the challenges, recounting storise like Mr. Boutobé’s:

In roadless Ambahoabe commune… the SDC [Social Development Committee] organized residents of the commune seat to smooth out nearly five miles of trail so that field agent Sebastian Boutobé could reach them by motorcycle, rather than on foot… “[My motorcycle] made such an impression,” [Sebastian] says, “that some people named their babies Sebastian in honor of the event.”

Others crossed flooded rivers, like Mac Samuel, who remembered at one point, while he was trying to reach a remote area, ”we were up to our necks.”

This kind of effort makes an impression. According to the Case Study, when the project began, people believed health and thus family planning “belonged” to the health center. Afterwards, local leaders realized these efforts should be integrated and understood by everyone in the community.

Emmanuel Justin, mayor of Fotsialanana, “We can really define family planning as life planning. It is therefore the responsibility of all development actors, including us in the SDC and, in fact, right up to the nation.”