Mona Lisa Africa
Niger
NOVEMBER 2007
The program 1 year later
It is now exactly a year ago that the Mona Lisa Africa program has been launched in Niger. It is therefore of interest for HRA Parma and also for the doctors and patients in France that are and were implicated, to review and ponder on all the activities that took place and to think about the objectives for 2008.
In this passed year we kept in mind that the Mona Lisa Africa program will have to be in line with the spirit of the family planning policy of the healthcare program in Niger for the years planned for 2005 - 2010. The mere fact that this country has one of the highest demographic growth rates in the world stimulates a serious interest and the need to promote and develop long term contraception methods.
Our local partners such as the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), Ministry of Health (National Reproductive Health Services – CNSR), have particularly concentrated on the education and preparation of the medical professionals implicated, as well as the women prepared for handling the Intrauterine Devices (IUD's.) (insertion and removal).
Just to illustrate the outcome with a few numbers, the following:
- Between October 2006 and June 2007, there were no less than 5 training sessions organised with Dakar (Senegal), Niamey, Loga and Zinder (Niger).
- There were 2 post-education evaluation/follow-up missions performed.
- More than forty medical helpers could be trained to introduce and remove the IUD's.
- The 2 000 copper IUD's distributed in October 2006 during the launch of this program, have all been used during the training and practical phases of the medical helpers. It was hospital patients that benefited from this performed by the trained hospital personnel. This way of contraception was accepted easily to adapt to.