Mona Lisa Africa
Senegal
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For the period September 2007 to June 2008
As you will remember, the MonaLisa programme in Senegal is managed by two local partners (both from Saint Louis):
The first partner is the Senegalese Association for Family Planning (ASBEF), a non-governmental organisation created in 1974, that encourages family planning education and promotes reproductive health in Senegal. Part full member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), this organisation was officially recognised by the public authorities in 1975. It is an honour for us to have Ms Soda DIOUF BA as our contact person in this association. Not only is Ms DIOUF BA the coordinator of the ASBEF programmes, but also coordinator of targeted activities with the intra-uterine device (IUD), in the St Louis region.
The second partner is the District Hygiene department of St Louis. Their medical structure consists of 17 health positions (10 of them urban and 7 rural) and they cover the total St Louis departmental region. This medical structure is represented by Ms Seynabou N'DIAYE, senior district doctor and responsible for the MonaLisa Africa programme in Senegal. The financial support comes from the local authorities. It is worthy to note that as coordinator of the Family Planning programme in St Louis, Ms Soda Diouf Ba of the ASBEF forms an integral part of the District's Hygiene team.
The MonaLisa programme in Senegal kicked off in November 2007 when the first batch of 2 000 IUD's was sent to the District Department of Hygiene. However, this batch of IUD's could only be used as from March 2008 as a result of a cholera epidemic in the St Louis region at the end of 2007, because this involved and occupied a major part of the medical teams at that stage.
On reception of the batch of copper IUD's, the first actions taken by the ASBEF and the District Department of Hygiene were to put together a training programme for the medical teams, dealing with the insertion and removal of IUD's. The District took the entire responsibility of financing this educational programme which consisted mainly of the following:
- theoretical training
- practical training on anatomy demonstration dolls
- actual practice under supervision in the family planning centres
- post-training supervision in the field of real practice.
Therefore a first training session of 15 days was organised including around twenty participants consisting mainly of midwives and nursing sisters. It is important to know that until 2005 nurses have never been included in any training regarding methods of contraception. This new training also therefore served to improve their versatility. Moreover, this training programme enhanced the importance of the methods of long term contraception in the minds of all participants.
What makes the results of this training so successful is the fact that all the participants immediately started practicing the insertion of IUD's under the supervision of the senior district doctor (Ms Soda Diouf Ba). The training programme will be optimised by prolonging the practical experience period and by establishing the necessary measures of support for the trained providers.
From the patients' point of view, those who had an IUD inserted are being followed-up regularly: a first visit (at the centre), a month after she received the IUD, a visit 3 months after insertion of the IUD and then a control visit every 6 months.
As the IUD's up to date created very little interest amongst the population, the ASBEF and the District Department of Hygiene are planning an information and awareness campaign on the methods of long term contraception.
With this as background, it is important to remember that the introduction of the IUD as method of contraception could contribute to achieving the objective of 12% coverage in terms of family planning in the department of St Louis.