Family Matters
It has truly been an exciting couple of days. We had three meetings today, two of which were at the same time. Deepika was able to present our adherence materials to ICAP while I spoke with members of the Ministry of Health about the final versions of the family planning brochure and poster. The really exciting part is that I was able to speak with them about the adherence charts and the liquid adherence dipstick and reading card, and they gave initial approval to of them!
We also received an encouraging response from ICAP who asked that we extend the pill adherence charts to 60 and 90 days! We will be piloting the materials at the Baylor COE this week and be gathering feedback just before we leave.
While I was waiting at the Ministry of Health office for my driver to pick me up, I had a chance to speak with one of the members of the Health Promotions Unit. Since it was an unusually cold day, she invited me to wait in her office. We spoke about our families for quite a long time. She told me about how she was one of five children. When I expressed surprise at having such a large family, she told me that it was actually quite a small family. In a polygamous society like Swaziland, families may have up to 50 children!
One other thing she said really hit me hard. In the US, a family with two children is fairly common. But she made a conscious decision to only have two children. The reason was that had noticed during apartheid, when many South African families fled to Swaziland, and now with the influx of refugees from Zimbabwe, how difficult it was for large families to be able to carry the young children with them.
Even though Swaziland has been fairly stable, she and her husband decided that just in case they would have to uproot their family, they should keep it at a manageable size. This is definitely something I had never thought of when thinking about what size family I’d like to have. Listening to her, I realized how different people’s mindsets are in many other parts of the world where war and unrest are never that far away. An appropriate thought for the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day, everyone!