Health Educators Spread Family Planning Messages Throughout Ogun State

Joy Akinsanya leads demand generation in Ogun State.

Using health educators to spread family planning messages has yielded remarkable results for The Challenge Initiative in Ogun State. Within a period of seven months (June to December 2018), social mobilizers under the supervision of health educators reached 12,975 men and 21,792 women with accurate family planning messages through neighborhood campaigns, festivals across the state and other avenues. They also referred 4,528 potential clients for family planning services, out of which 1,709 completed referral.

Joy Akinsanya is the demand generation lead for Ogun State who has worked for more than five years in reproductive health. She said because health educators are recognized as key contributors in the mobilization of women for family planning services, the Initiative supported the State in training them.

“They can now counsel women confidently on family planning, knowing that it is not harmful. This has made a huge difference because more women now have access to family planning information and they are now going to the facility,” Akinsanya said. “Even the providers testify that there is an increase in the client flow as a result of the health educators’ interactions with women and men in the community.”

She added that these changes are occurring throughout Ogun State because they involved health educators in all their Local Government Areas due to a better understanding of how demand generation works there.

“The involvement of health educators is key because they provide a critical link between the community and family planning services,” Akinsanya said.