A media roundtable is being hosted by Marie Stopes PNG for journalists in Lae.
The family planning and sexual reproductive health awareness brought together journalists, clinicians and Marie Stopes staff at the Lae International Hotel.
The media was told that teams brave the challenging terrains of Morobe to deliver reproductive health services on an average budget of K15,000 per month.
Monitoring and evaluation Manager for Marie Stopes, Adolf Kot, said people have misconceptions about family planning, believing that it belongs to a certain gender or certain age group only, or it breaches PNG’s customs and traditions.
“The important message we would like to bring across is, family planning is specifically to space children and if you have enough children, then you can stop bearing them. That is why we ask our youths and adolescents to come in and get family planning services where needed, but not on a daily basis.
“We do like to encourage, especially our females – if you’re attending primary school, secondary or even tertiary institutions – if you need information on the importance of family planning, you can visit our offices in the centres that we provide these services.”
Marie Stopes operates in 13 provinces in PNG. In 2020, 134,000 clients across the country used contraception.
The organisation is hoping to sign a partnership with the Morobe Provincial Health Authority and continue their efforts in reaching the unreached.
The media roundtable will end on Friday, the 4th of February.
Photo caption: (Members of Lae media with Marie Stopes staff in a discussion during yesterday’s roundtable)
