Celebrations marking the international population day for the 25th time on the 12th.July.2012 in Ngororero District were conducted in Kabaya sector, the theme for the event being; “universal access to reproductive health services”.
Mrs. Marthe Karugwiza, a representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) showed the disadvantages of not caring about reproductive health where she said that about 800.000 women in the world die while giving birth daily.
UNFPA’s objective is for every woman to be ready and plan before every pregnancy and for every child to have a chance to live and for youth to be educated about reproductive health.
Promoting reproductive will reduce 67percent of mothers’ death and 57percent of infants’ death in the Africa in the southern of the Saharan desert where Rwanda belongs and using family planning to avoid unwanted pregnancies will reduce Abortion by 71percent.
According to the research that was done in 2010 showed that Rwanda as a country has taken a step in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the number of mothers who deliver in hospitals or aided with by medical staff is 69percent from 39percent in 2005.
The number of women using family planning in Rwanda also increased from 109percent in 2005 to 45percent in 2010 and the mothers’ mortality rate decreased from 750 out of 1000 women in 2005 to 478 out of 1000 in 2010.
Though the statistics show good results, there are still limitations like low understanding of family planning programs, lack of explanatory studies about reproductive health in schools, culture and religious beliefs getting in the way and unfounded rumours about family planning.
Mrs. Charlotte Musabeyezu a worker in Ngororero district thanked UNFPA for its participation in training youth about reproductive health.
She gave 13 computers to 13 sectors for data base to be used by civil status registers and said that keeping information about young girls who give birth has been of great help in fighting it and they should do so now that they have computers.
