The message sent on the ministry’s Twitter handle comes after Rwandans have spent slightly over a week under a national lockdown decree which was announced on the evening of March 21, after the first Coronavirus case was reported in Rwanda on March 14.
“During this Coronavirus period, we (ministry) are asking married couples to remember to ensure use of family planning methods to avoid having unplanned births,” said Prof. Jeannette Bayisenge, the Gender and Family promotion minister March 29.
Prof Bayisenge said that the Covid-19 lockdown period which has been an opportunity for parents to stay with their children should be used profitably to build family trust and future plans.
“This time is a very vital moment for parents to sit down and talk to the children, plan for their families, because very soon we will win this war against Coronavirus and you will be back to work,” Bayisenge said.
Rwanda government has since 2007, rallied citizens to have at least three children as part of the wider plan to reduce population density which stands at 525 per Km2 on land amounting to an area of only 26,338 km2 (10,169 square miles).
The Rwandan population, mainly youth below age 35, and a median age of 20 years, has grown rapidly from 2,527,294 in 1955 to 12,952,218 in 2020 according to worldometer https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/rwanda-population/.
However, Rwanda has provided long-acting contraceptives through an operational network of 58,286 Community Health Workers from all villages of the country, and said that Rwanda is targeting to increase contraceptive prevalence to at least 60% by 2024 as reflected in the National Strategy for Transformation, 2017-2024.
