Source: The Citizen
Family planning is probably the last thing on the mind of any person struggling to find food and shelter. It is understandably not something that any person tends to think of while trying to navigate challenging circumstances as a refugee.
Women, specifically, are terrified of becoming pregnant because of their situation.
We are talking about refugees who fled from their countries because of political unrest. And studies suggest that pregnancy can also carry a risk of death and disability for mothers and newborns, especially those who have been through trauma while fleeing from turmoil. As Lizzy Berryman, the head of emergencies for the medical charity Merlin puts it in her article in The Guardian, family planning still remains a low-cost way of reducing pregnancy-related deaths.
This means that pregnancy can be the natural and life-affirming process it should be for women who have already endured conflict and disaster. This week, our writer visited the maternity ward in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Kigoma, Tanzania. She found that the state of expectant mothers is not so bad at the refugee camp considering the conflict they fled from in their home countries.
In Nyarugusu, the refugees seeking refuge at the camp in zone 8 are from Burundi, Tanzania's neighbouring state which has witnessed unending political turmoil over the years.