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EPHA presents progress of Packard-funded RH/FP project


The Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA) has presented the achievements registered in carrying out the project that focuses on Reproductive Health (RH) and Family Planning (FP) on grantees meeting organized by the Divide and Lucile Packard Foundation in Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel from 23-25, February, 2015.  

The progress of the project entitled “Expanding Long Acting Family Planning in Ethiopia” was presented at the meeting by Ato Tesfa Demelw, Director of Research, Training and Publications Department with EPHA.

 

In his presentation, he indicated that the project, which is supported by the Divide and Lucile Packard Foundation, is aimed at expanding long acting family planning (LAFP) methods through strengthening primary health care unit mainly through supporting selected midwife training institutions, generating evidences, and giving leadership development and capacity building to service providers.

Speaking on the achievements of the project, he noted that during the course of the project 20 pilot health centers were assisted to open Adolescent and Youth Friendly Reproductive Health Service (AYFHS) wing in the existing health centers in Amhara region.

In addition, a total of 7,762 health extension workers (HEWs) were trained on implanon and 1,566 received refresher training and are now providing FP services at community level. A total of 227,564 clients also received FP services in SNNPR.

It was mentioned that a total of 865 RH/FP leaders and supervisors have been trained and are now providing support to HEWs.  Moreover, preparatory works were done to provide pre-service trainings on comprehensive family planning services for graduating midwife students. In line with this, 30 tutors were trained in Oromia region.

All of these activities were conducted in anticipation of synergistic changes resulting from bottom-up efforts to strengthen family planning knowledge, attitudes and practices among community members, Ato Tesfa explained.

To ensure the smooth implementation of the interventions, the project built partnership with all levels of government, other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the same field, and local community leaders.