Religious Leaders Become Advocates for Reproductive Health

This article on the Pathfinder International website explores a strategy for approaching information exchange around reproductive health (RH) issues in the devoutly religious country of Yemen. Specifically, the article explores the Basic Health Services (BHS) Project, which trains Islamic preachers to educate their communities about RH. The organisers of this project - the Pathfinder-managed Extending Service Delivery Project, with funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) - observed that Islamic leaders "hold positions of extreme influence, and are often approached for advice and guidance on family and personal matters, including decisions about health." The reasoning is that these highly regarded personnel might be well positioned to support the project's goal of improving maternal and child health in Yemen's most underserved areas.

Covering topics such as reproductive anatomy and physiology, birth spacing, family planning methods, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and prevention of gender-based violence, the 5-day workshops are led by religious leaders who were themselves trained to act as educators. Conducted in Arabic, the courses use passages from the Quran to explain why health issues are important to Islamic communities. They also dispel many common misconceptions, such as the belief that family planning was invented by the West to control Muslim populations.

One of the 115 religious leaders trained to date, who was initially skeptical about participating in the programme, comments that "As religious leaders, we are guides, the people trust us and believe us, and so we will go to the mosques in all areas and raise people's awareness of health care for the family."