Journalists drawn from various media organisations in Akwa Ibom State have been trained on the coverage of family planning services as well as on its advocacy and sexual and reproductive health.
Organised by Development Communication Network, media development and capacity-building with support from The Challenge Initiative (TCI), the three-day workshop had resource persons from both the organisers and Family Planning officials from the state Ministry of Health.
Speaking while declaring the workshop open, Obasesam Edet said it was important for journalists who were drawn from the print, electronic and social media to be well equipped on how to report Family Planning services, adding that his organisation was working with some state government in generating demand for family planning services.
According to him, the uptake of family planning services is beneficial to the family in spacing childbirth and as a boost for the Gross Domestic Product of a nation.
In her presentation, Enobong Eshiet, coordinator of Family Planning in Akwa Ibom State, disclosed that 4.6 percent of adolescent girls aged between 15-19 years of age and 13.2 percent of women between 20-24 years of age in Nigeria use modern contraceptives.
There were presentations on using social media as a strategic approach to promoting family planning, cultural and religious contexts of family planning, family planning in Nigeria, trends, practices and barriers related to family planning and writing compelling human-angle stories on family planning.
The right method is the one that suits you, according to the slogan while the methods include pills, injectables, implants, male and female condoms, vasectomy and tubal ligation among others.
In addition to journalists being exposed to issues of adolescent sexual health, they also undertook a field trip to a health facility in Oti, Okobo where clients were availing themselves of family planning services being provided at the facility.
Akwa Ibom has a 32 percent unmet need for family planning services, while the Contraceptives Prevalence Rate is 19 percent with a teenage pregnancy rate of 12 percent, according to experts.
In Akwa Ibom State, family planning services are free for both commodities and consumables.
