Nghe An: Population communication campaign targeting specific areas

SPECIAL AREA INTEREST

Due to the impact of the pandemic, this year the Integrated Communication Campaign to provide reproductive health services/family planning and improve population quality in 2020 was not launched on a large scale. Instead, the province launched it in 3 areas with 3 main clusters in Hung Nguyen, Quynh Luu and Tan Ky districts.

Deploying a population campaign in Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen). Photo: My Ha

In Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen) - although the campaign was launched in early May, when the Covid-19 epidemic had just been controlled nationwide, on the launch day, a large number of people in the entire commune participated. Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan - a resident of the commune said: "Although we live not too far from the city, we rarely go for reproductive health check-ups, unless we are sick. Therefore, when we heard about the campaign and a team of doctors from the medical center came to check and do modern tests, we were very happy and this was also an opportunity for us to check our health."

Not only being visited, examined and given free medicine, at this program, people of Hung Tay commune also received direct guidance and answers to questions from doctors from the Department of Population - Family Planning on many issues related to reproductive health and common diseases of women.

“Hung Tay is a special commune with a large population and a very high third-child birth rate. Therefore, implementing the campaign with many parallel activities is an opportunity for people to raise awareness about reproductive health care. Thereby, it also creates favorable conditions for people to be examined, screened for dangerous diseases and use medical services right at the facility in a convenient and economical way.”

Vo Thi Nga - population officer of Hung Tay commune

In recent years, due to the decline in budget spending on population activities, the budget for communication campaigns integrating the provision of reproductive health services/family planning and improving population quality has been significantly reduced.

Communication on reproductive health care for students in Thanh Chuong district. Photo: Manh Dat

However, with the important significance of this program, the province and localities still focus resources for the campaign to be implemented effectively. In particular, the provincial budget supports more than 700 million VND to provide gynecological treatment drugs for 459/459 communes in the province. In addition, financial support for medical examination and treatment for 18 communes with special difficulties. Localities have also proactively provided funding for communes to synchronously implement many activities from communication, reproductive health care and integration of services.

In Thanh Chuong district, the campaign has now completed 1/3 of its journey and is slower than in previous years. However, this year the district has made many innovations in the implementation process because before organizing the synchronously, the district had a "cushion" preparation step when organizing media consultation on the meaning of the campaign and the benefits that people participating in it to all communes and towns in the district.

“In the special context of 2020, we determined that the implementation of the campaign would be difficult. Therefore, before the campaign, we must do a good job of communication to raise people's awareness. We also directed the communes to publicize the entire list of people who registered to participate in the campaign and widely announce it on the radio system to remind and encourage people to participate in the response.”

Mr. Nguyen Hien Ngoc - Director of Thanh Chuong District Population/Family Planning Center

DIVERSIFICATION OF OBJECTS

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, this year, the communication campaign to provide reproductive health care services will be organized in 2 phases and last until November.

That is why, in localities, instead of launching a massive campaign, communes and towns also organize by hamlet and residential group to both limit large gatherings and facilitate people's participation.

Population communication for people in Quynh Di block - Hoang Mai town. Photo: My Ha

In particular, to deploy the campaign widely, communication content has also been deployed with many innovations for many different audiences, depending on the characteristics of each locality.

In particular, focus on priority groups in the campaign, which are: women of childbearing age, couples with only girls, areas with a large Catholic population, coastal areas, etc. In particular, focus on issues such as gender imbalance at birth and incestuous marriage to raise public awareness.

This year, the Department of Population and Family Planning has also directly organized many communication sessions for different target groups to raise public awareness of population/family planning issues and reproductive health care issues.

Following the propagandists of the population sector to Quynh Di ward - Hoang Mai town, one of the wards with a very high third child birth rate of over 35%/year, we realized that raising people's awareness of the issue of implementing population policy is a very important thing. Also in this program, although the organization time was only over 2 hours, the propagandists tried to convey to the people a lot of meaningful information such as the consequences of having many children and the effects if birth reduction is not implemented.

Examination and medicine for workers in Nam Cam Industrial Park. Photo: PV

In addition, through direct exchanges and dialogues, people have been equipped with basic knowledge about reproductive health care to contribute to improving the quality of life and building happy families. Ms. Phan Thi Thuong - a population officer of Quynh Di ward also said: "Quynh Di has more than 7,000 households and a large number of well-off households. Therefore, in recent years, it has been very difficult to propagate birth reduction because most families want to have more children to expand their family and prevent risks. From this reality, we hope to have more sessions to propagate population policies to raise people's awareness and help people see the benefits of having fewer children, creating conditions to take care of their children's education and economic development".

In 2020, due to the extended school year, a large part of the communication sessions on Reproductive Health Care were organized in schools and expanded to include issues of drowning prevention or career guidance for students. Through many communication sessions in some mountainous districts.

“One of the prominent problems in many schools at this time is that students leave school early to get married and have children. There are even schools where dozens of students have left school after the Covid-19 pandemic, many of whom are only in grades 10 and 11. For that reason, I think that communicating about reproductive health/family planning issues in schools is very important and should be considered a regular activity so that students can better understand the issue of early marriage and the effects of early marriage.”

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong - officer of the Communication - Population Department - Provincial Population/Family Planning Office

With the active participation of departments, branches and localities, the communication campaign to provide reproductive health care services in 2020 is increasingly receiving attention and response from the general public.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Tan - Head of the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning said: “2020 is a special year for the Population sector. However, in the context of general difficulties, localities have been flexible in implementing the campaign with many diverse activities, targeting many different subjects. We also hope that with this effort, the population sector will reach the finish line with many positive results and successfully complete the set targets”.