Tinashe Murauro
There has been a huge communication gap in family planning in regards to the youth and disabled. I ended up developing IEC material which helped giving knowledge to the youth and disabled about family planning. Service providers now have a positive attitude when it comes to how they treat the youth and disabled in line with family planning issues. With the help of my organisation, I worked closely with other organisations that deal with the youth and disabled. The partnership which was created with the organisations that deal with the youth and disabled also managed to help with awarding the providers with training in line with ways of communicating with the youth and disabled and now some of them can even use sign language among other forms of communication with the disabled
The unmet need and gap in the communication about family planning issues is what triggered my passion in family planning. Using my skills in media, I helped in addressing the communication issues in line with family planning information to the youth and disabled by creating IEC material for them in ways they could understand. My organisation was the first in the country to have IEC material on Family planning for the disabled. We have IEC material like Braille booklets and sign language DVDs.
Selling the idea to the organisations so that the programmers know that communication is key and have their buy in in the development of communication strategies for the youth and disabled to increase their knowledge on family planning and thus their access to the family planning.
Communication plays a big role in family planning. The youth and disabled need require this information. I want to continually develop communication strategies and address the communication to the youth and disabled in the areas of communication in line with family planning methods. I want to see an increase in behavior change in the youths and disabled and increased information on family planning. I would also target stakeholders to have their buy in and consolidate different views to one goal.
