Caroline Maringa, Program Manager, Africa Capacity Alliance
Nairobi, Kenya
Demystifying vasectomy—it’s like taking it up and slicing it down into small little bits where people are able to consume. Work with them slowly. I’m imagining a situation where some organizations that we deal with are CBOs [community-based organizations]. If I left here and went to a place—like for instance Marakwet, where one of the organizations is—and talked about vasectomy, I’d probably be stoned. I mean, they’d be like, “What are you talking about? We don’t even talk about such things.”
Because even when we talk about sex, it’s a taboo. But now it means working with these people to demystify it, saying, “This is vasectomy. This is what is done…. It’s not going to interfere with your manhood. It’s not going to interfere with your health.” Slowly, slowly.
The only way you can do that is identifying the gatekeepers—for instance, the chiefs, the local leaders, the headmen, the guys who are in charge of those communities—and educating them on what it’s all about before you can go down to the communities. It takes time. It’s not something you can do overnight. Because in some of these communities, women cannot even talk to them. How do you even start? You have to have champions who are men, and getting men champions takes time. It’s a gradual process. But, again, it can be done.
