The Contribution of Community Health Workers to the Use of Modern Family Planning Methods in Huye District case of Ruhashya Health Center

Abstract

Although Rwanda has initiated the program of Community Health Worker (CHWs) in 1995 with the objective of delivering the first level of entry to the health system, with its evolution and the package of activities and many more including modern family planning methods. The Community Health Workers (CHWs) are now providing also some modern family planning methods, but we don’t know how far they are with the program in terms of quality and quantity of the service delivered. The study took a place at Ruhashya health center with the objectives of finding out the modern family planning methods used in HUYE district, highlighting the prevalence use of modern family planning methods before and after contribution of CHWs in Huye District and assessing the effectiveness of CHWs to the use of modern family planning methods in Huye District. Methodology focused on users of Family Planning who are from the catchment area of Ruhashya health center, and Community health workers who are usually providing this service; questionnaire and interview have been used. The Results showed that the users of Modern FP methods in Ruhashya heath Center opt for the long-acting reversible contraceptive methods among which the CHWs provide injections, pills, condoms and counseling about other methods in a very effective way. The prevalence of these used modern family planning methods increases year by year as per the program of Community Based Provision (CBP) in Ruhashya who started from 70 to 80%. The acceptance of the long term reversible methods of FP is higher than previously. Most of Community Health Workers have completed quality service they perform. They are an important source of information about modern FP methods as they are appreciated by the FP users at 72 % for quality service they deliver.