By Neo Kolane
The ministry of health and UNFPA have introduced a new family planning method in Lesotho called Sayana Press.
Sayana Press is a self-injection depo contraceptive. Sayana Press can be self-administered by the client or by any (non-medical) person who has received minimal training.
The new method has a three-month active period of protection. UNFPA has recently supported the training of over 500 community health workers in Mokhotlong and Quthing districts to introduce this family planning method. Both are districts with the highest unmet need for family planning.
Many women welcomed the initiative and feel empowered to administer the long term method in their community by themselves, with their daughters or with the help of a trained community health worker.
There is no more need for long journeys to a health facility if they want to decide on the number of children they want or if they are happy with their family size. The method also revealed to be most appropriate to reach communities and improve access to family planning in times of COVID19.
The UNFPA Representative to Lesotho, Marc Derveeuw has commended the government of Lesotho for starting to procure family planning commodities from the national budget.
He also emphasized that access to family planning is a right, reiterating that it is at the heart of UNFPA’s mandate and transformative results in Lesotho. UNFPA will continue to avail resources to further roll out the Sayana Press method and to reach full national coverage by the end of 2021.
