HEWs FIGHTING RELIGIOUS RESISTANCE TO PROVIDE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DELEGATES OF ETHIOPIA

 By Mekakannika. K

Q. Who are the Health Extension Workers (HEWs)?

A. The HEWs are trained healthcare service providers, particularly in rural areas where healthcare providers are scarce. Most HEWs are women and are trained both theoretically and practically on female reproductive health, family planning, maternal health, and sexual health. HEWs also provide help to women who have experienced complications related to reproductive health. Due to religious influence, most of the citizens of Ethiopia have negative attitudes towards contraceptives and family planning, especially in rural areas, and HEWs make constant efforts on tackling these issues by educating women from rural areas about their rights. Since contraceptives are not available easily in rural areas, HEWs step in to give them easy access to contraceptives. It is almost like a door-to-door campaign in which the HEWs make sure that every single household gets access to female health care. 

Q. How does religion influence women’s healthcare rights?

A. 43% percentage of our population consist of orthodox Christians. Contraceptives and family planning goes against their religion and thus, these concepts are met with resistance. We also have a large number of Muslim communities who also hold similar opinions on contraceptives. Currently, with the help of religious leaders themselves and NGOs, we are educating the citizens of our nation, explaining the importance of contraceptives and family planning. It is a roundabout process, but we’re doing what we can for now. 

Q. How effective is educating citizens on the importance of contraceptives? Is there any progress? Has there been any notable progress?

A. So far, this has been working quite well. In the past, the citizens of Ethiopia were very strictly against it, but recently they have been opening up to these ideas and have started to understand the importance of family planning. Though we have not managed to fully convince them, we are seeing a slow change which is a good sign.