ACQUIRE Publishes Report on Community Postabortion Care Project (COMMPAC) in Nakuru District, Kenya

Education, mobilization, and promotion to prevent unplanned pregnancies and inform the community about delays in seeking care are critical to reducing complications related to miscarriage and unsafe abortion. Community empowerment through community awareness and mobilization is a core component of the U.S. Agency for International Development-s (USAID-s) postabortion care (PAC) model. As a focus country of the USAID/Washington Postabortion Care Working Group, Kenya was provided funding to replicate the PAC community mobilization model that has been implemented in Bolivia since 2004. Through the Catalyst Project in Bolivia, 50 community groups were trained in PAC and participated in facilitated trainings and meetings to improve community access to PAC services.

The ACQUIRE Project, through its local partner, the Society for Women and AIDS in Kenya (SWAK), implemented this activity. Using the community action cycle, SWAK worked with community leaders in five communities in the Nakuru District in Kenya to replicate and adapt the Bolivia PAC model. This made their communities more aware of complications related to miscarriage and unsafe abortion, and of the use of family planning (FP) to prevent unplanned pregnancy, and more able to devise community action plans to address these concerns and the barriers to PAC and FP services.

Some of the important lessons learned in the replication of this activity include:

Basic methodologies for community engagement can be used, but replication must be adapted to socio-cultural contexts. Resources and time for this adaptation need to be factored into replication projects.

The community action cycle process can work in urban and rural settings.

The community action cycle methodology was effective in building ownership of the problems and solutions identified by community groups.

Mapping is an effective tool for motivating participants to see community needs, as well as for affirming their collective accomplishments as they implement their action plans.

In the absence of PAC services and trained providers, communities can build partnerships with key stakeholders and advocate for resources to address infrastructure and services.

The complete report is available on the ACQUIRE Project website at
http://www.acquireproject.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ACQUIRE/Publications/COMMPAC-Kenya-Report-final.pdf

The information provided on this Web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.