ELLEN MLAMBO
MIRROR REPORTER

MASVINGO – World Contraception Day Commemorations will be held on September 26, 2024 at Mkoba Teachers’ College in Gweru, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFC) Chief Executive Officer Farai Machinga has said.
He said contraception is important because it is a health and economic development issue.
Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Douglas Mombeshora is expected to be the guest of honour, said Machinga.
The event is celebrated globally on September 26.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) workshop on public procurement and corporate governance held in Masvingo last week, Machinga said that the theme this year is Contraception- it’s your Life, it’s your Responsibility.
He said that the objective of the commemorations is to sensitise communities on the importance of family planning and make them aware of the benefits to their health, families and the economy of the country.
“Through the World Contraception Day, we also disseminate consistent and correct information to communities where they should know that family planning is not only a health but also a developmental and economic issue.
“There should be a realisation that every dollar saved or invested towards family planning saves four folds of the economic funds,” he said.
Machinga said commemorations speak to the commitment of different countries including Zimbabwe towards ensuring that the country meets the Family Planning (FP) commitments where the nation committed to increase the modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) for all women from 50,2% in 2019 to 54% by 2026.
The last contraception day commemorations were held at Rushinga in Mashonaland Central.
He added that in their programs as ZNFPC, they are also teaching about comprehensive sexuality education and parental child communication where they are facilitating the guardians and parents to be able to trigger discussions around sexual and reproductive health for young people within their communities, homesteads, at school, especially in tertiary institutions.