Month of Women's health started on World Population Day in Turkmenistan
On 11 July, World Population Day, the Ministry of health and medical industry of Turkmenistan announced the start of month of women's health. An important public action, supported by the United Nations population Fund (UNFPA), will continue until 11 August.
The aim of the campaign is to increase the awareness of women about careful attitude for their own health through timely access to health care facilities. In addition, the objective of the month is to raise awareness of the country's reproductive health services.
During the campaign period, women countrywide will have an opportunity to receive for free: cervical cancer testing and reproductive health counseling including on the topic of pregnancy planning at the 94 reproductive health centers and rooms of the country.
The start of women's health month in Turkmenistan was dedicated to the world population day because the theme of family planning as an important right of women has become the motto of this significant international date in 2018.
Ensuring access to reproductive health services not only for women but also for men and adolescents is one of the strategic areas of joint activities of Fund and the government of Turkmenistan. And as the Executive representative of the UNFPA Bairamgul Garabayeva noted, the partnership has achieved sustainable political outcomes.
In cooperation with the UNFPA, access to integrated reproductive health services has been successfully expanded in the country, which include birth planning, maternal and child health, adolescent health, treatment and prevention.
It is also significant that UNFPA, due to the upper-middle income level status of Turkmenistan phased out its assistance for procuring reproductive health commodities and since 2017 the government of Turkmenistan covers the needs in modern methods of contraception.
Family planning was first recognized as an inalienable human right half a century ago at the International conference on human rights. This provision was fixed in the final document of the forum or the Tehran Declaration, which states that parents have the inalienable right to freely and responsibly determine the number of children in the family and the intervals between their birth.
UNFPA is fully committed to continuing to support countries’ efforts to uphold the right of individuals, especially women, to plan a family, says the statement by Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem.
As a first step in this direction, the head of UNFPA proposed to increase funding for family planning programmes. And it requires only 20 cents per person per year to solve the problem of lack of funds.
