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TEACHING MACHO MEN HOW TO CARE FOR BABIES

by Rosemary Long
The Gambia Family Planning Association (GFPA) is waging a new campaign for responsible parenthood and improved child health through active male participation. The first "Male Motivation Project" is underway in Karantaba district where infant deaths have already dropped in some villages. But, as Gemini News Service reports, many problems remain family planning and won't take part in child health care programmes. —
HASSAN Faal, a middle aged public works employee in Gambia s small fishing village of Kombo North, threw a big feast when his latest child was given a clan name a few weeks ago.
When I bumped into him again the other day, he was hurrying to another naming ceremony of a son born to his girl friend. "You see, I am a real man," he beamed.
Like many men in the Gambia, Hassan believes fertility is the sign of one's manll nesa, and the more children the greater the prestige. Be yond that, however, fathers hardly play any further rote tn the upbringing of children. The care of he country's growing number of children is almost exclusively left to their mothers.
Botswana Foreign Minister Gaosltwe Chiepe said ft all on a visit to The Gambia: If you ask a man where his Mate, cattle and camels are, he will tell C. But if you ask him where
children are, he will ask his wife."
The other reason Gambian men yearn for many children is that they provide for their parents In old age and for labour on the farms Having many children Is also an insurance against high infant mor tality rates.
But recent studies by the Gambia Family Planning. Asao elation (GFPA) Indicate that the country may soon face land shortages If the current popu latten growth rate continues unchecked.
The Gambia's population has grown by 100,000 to about 814.000 in the last five yw. and the density of 74 people per square kilometer Is already too high for a poor agricultural country of just I 1.000 square kilometers
The GFPA has blamed this on early sex and teenage prog nancies, but the association's call for contraception md self control to a tone voice which rarely finds fertile ears.
Says Dr. Burang Ooroe Nd I aye: "Use of contraceptives by teenagers and married women to minimal. Media stories ahoyt sex to the more liberal coun tries portray tt as a glamorous act without serious conse
quencc*. As a result, chastity and virginity are no longer cultural demands."
Like other male-dominated
societies, very few Gambian men let their wives use contraceptives or any other form of birth control. The husband
will still force the wife to have more children even when she feels she has had enough or is suffering poor health.
The Family Planning Assort ation has realised its campaign may not succeed unless It tar gets men as well and an 18-month "Male Motivation Project" to well underway.
In the last 12 months, the GFPA has led counselling workshops for police officers and other male groups dealing with population, education, family planning, maternal and child health, and adolescent fertility management.
The Association campaign received a major boost when Parliament passed a new law establishing a National Council for Nursing. Midwifery and Community Health Nursing
The Improvements tn primary health care programmes impressed the World Health Organisation (WHO) represen tative tn Banjul. Professor Hilary Od hi ambo, who acknowl-ran countries
The programme has trained birth attendants and village health workers to supplement services at the Maternal Child Health (MCH) unit at Karantaba. A midwife, a dis penser, two nurses and a doctor hold cHnk-s In Karantaba twice a week, and then move out to the outlying villages
Each village now has Its own birth attendant and health worker, and maternal mortal tty rates have been greatly reduced. The national average is IO per 1000 but in Karantaba tt has dropped to six per 1000 live births, and three villages have brought tt down to one.
The 21 villages around Karantaba will soon have a radio link to the health center -and tertiary referral centers and a Land-Rover to available to rush emergency cases to the Royal Victoria Hospital 1n Ban jul.
Even then, the situation is far from satisfactory Karantaba to juat a soadl part of the country, and many people still sneer at family planning and do not partiripate In child health care programmes The Victoria Hospital itself suffers from acute shortage of basic equipment and items