My idea is: Male Health Promoters (MHP)

MHP is a team of male family planning champions who will be based at 40 health facilities – including district hospitals and rural posts across the Karkaar region in Puntland, Somalia. Previous programmes have shown the value in recruiting men to talk to other men in their community about the value of family planning.

Draw and describe the ideal end user:

Name: Farah

*While we see women as the ultimate beneficiary of the program, we have cast Farah, a male, as the main character of this storyboard

Age: 35

Profession: traditional clan leader in Karkaar Region, Somalia

Any other key characteristic: father of twelve children

Describe what is happening: Farah is an aggressive traditional clan leader who is against girl’s education and their sexual & reproductive health rights. He feels that such things are “woman’s issues” and resents when female health promoters come around to talk to him, such as at the café, about the importance of family planning use. He sends them away, even if they are concerned about his own wife’s health.

ARROGANT FARAH

Farah returns from the café to find his pregnant wife bleeding heavily. Instead of whisking her to the hospital, he gets angry, and tells her to go see her mother or any traditional female healer about this.

He is uncomfortable and unknowledgeable about these issues, so he doesn’t know the danger of a spontaneous abortion or of not adequately spacing their births.

WIFE IN DANGER

Farah’s wife continues to bleed heavily and she goes unconscious from the loss of blood. All of Farah’s family and children gather around and are very sad. Farah realizes this is more serious than he thought.

A male health promoter in his community hears about his wife’s condition and rushes to the home. He tells them that with timely referral to the nearby hospital, they can save her life.

TAKING ACTION

Farah listens to the health promoter in part because the health promoter is male and the health promoter can speak his language. They hurry his wife to the hospital.

While his wife is being cared for, Farah reflects on the importance of supporting his wife during pregnancy, labor and planning for children. He makes a promise to himself that if his wife survives that he will be a champion to other men, just like the male health promoter was for him, so that no women have to suffer like his wife has.

COUNSELING

Farah’s wife makes a full recovery. Farah rejoices and praises allah for delivering his wife. The doctor at the health centers advises them to use a long-acting family planning method and to wait at least six months to get pregnant again to avoid other complications.

Farah thinks for the first time about how having so many children has affected his wife’s health. Farah wants to follow up on his promise to be a champion for women’s reproductive health and to spread these messages to other men. He listens well and asks lot of questions.

SPREADING AWARENESS

Farah follows through on his promise to bring positive messages about women’s reproductive health to other men in his community. In this picture, Farah speaks to men in his clan. Because of the work of the male health promoters, Farah has learned the necessary knowledge to bring these messages to his community, which in turns teaches other men and works to create an environment that is supportive of women’s health.

As a result, demand increased for reproductive health services in Karkaar region. Male health promoters filled an important knowledge gap to create a better community.