Africa
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A few words of history
Development of Family Life Associations in Africa until 1983
Africa was chosen as a priority region by the International Federation for Family Life Promotion in the development of natural family planning soon after the establishment of the organization. In March-April 1977 the African delegates presented an initial request at the first IFFLP zonal meetings held in Yaounde, Cameroon. A second request was presented in the form of a resolution at the First General Assembly of IFFLP members in Cali in June 1977.
A general development plan was pre-pared in early 1978.
As a result, during a period of five years NFP was implanted in several African countries. Mauritius has been the pioneer African program of 20 years standing, serving as a prototype.
In November and December 1981 IFFLP organized a trainers' workshop in Mauritius with field visits. This bilingual workshop brought together 65 participants from 20 African countries and govern-mental observers from 8 countries.
The second phase of the continental NFP development program was initiated in 1983. It combines five to eight years of demonstration/evaluation natural family planning projects in 10 or more African countries.
Zambia illustrates the second generation of NFP programs in Africa. The Ministry of Health in Zambia has adopted a favourable policy towards natural family planning. Special efforts are being made to develop a national NFP training program based on the recently published World Health Organization Family Fertility Education Resource Package. Formal NFP services in both the public and private sectors are also being developed.
Concurrent with NFP development sponsored by IFFLP in Africa, promoters of the ovulation method, Drs. John and Evelyn Billings have invited their collaborators to WOOMB workshops and congresses in Australia and Europe. Programs of a few of these (the Seychelles, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya) are described in this monograph briefly. Delegates from 26 African countries attended the Third International Congress of IFFLP in Hong Kong in November 1983.
In August 1983, with support from the United States Agency for International Development, IFFLP initiated a five-year NFP demonstration and evaluation program in Zambia and Liberia, based on the lessons and experience of the Mauritius program. It is hoped that in 1984 a similar NFP technical assistance program will be extended to 10 or 12 French-speaking countries.
Currently
Since 2001 the Africa Family Life Federation (AFLF) develops the same type of activity as IFFLP had in the past, following identical Basic philosophy
This federation works in close connection with the Link Committee of Family Life organisations.
Moreover in the context of prevention of HIV/AIDS AFLF works with organisation such as Youth Alive, Love Matters, True Love waits, ...
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