The Department of Health (Reproductive Health division) Kilifi County, in collaboration with Y-ACT’s Tumaini Young Mothers spearheaded the World Contraceptive Day 2018 celebrations held at Gotani Health Centre, Kaloleni Sub-county on September 26th 2018.
Tumaini Young Mothers is a network of young girls and mothers who advocate for the address of the escalating rate of teenage pregnancies in Kaloleni and Rabai Sub-Counties.
The event, whose theme for the day was “Preventing Teenage Pregnancy and its Complications” sought to address the issue of unintended pregnancies especially amongst adolescents.
Present at the celebrations was County Executive Committee (CEC) Health Dr. Anisa Omar and the CEC Gender Culture Social Services and Sports Maureen Mwangovya who provided an opportunity for youth advocates to develop an interface between gender effects and health outcomes in Kilifi which will contribute to the development of a Gender Mainstreaming Policy roadmap moving forward.
Stakeholders reiterated the need to increase efforts to address the increased rate of unintended pregnancies and new HIV infections which has escalated from 22% (KDHS 2014) to 30% 2017 (NACC) and the celebration was wrapped up by the signing of a dummy commitment by the CECs to support the implementation of Gender and Adolescent Youth Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights policies in the County.