Ongoing awareness campaigns led by The Challenge Initiative (TCI) are dramatically changing perceptions about family planning in Adamawa, according to recent updates from the NGO.
TCI’s State Programme Manager, Mr. Godiya Yusuf, shared the positive results during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Yola this Sunday.
Yusuf revealed that, from early 2024 to the middle of 2025, Adamawa recorded an impressive 104,000 individuals newly embracing family planning methods.
He credited the partnership with Adamawa State’s government for helping dispel longstanding myths about contraceptives and promoting wider acceptance throughout local communities.
“Comprehensive training for health workers, persistent campaign messaging, and regular oversight have all boosted service uptake,” Yusuf reported.
He outlined that prior to TCI’s intervention in 2022, there were only 47,980 family planning acceptors and 19,024 users of modern contraceptives recorded in the state.
“By June 2024, these numbers had soared—new acceptors grew to 104,486 and modern contraceptive users reached 79,764. That’s a 78 percent reach of our initiative,” Yusuf explained.
Yusuf highlighted that investments in building health workers’ skills, ongoing supervision, careful monitoring, and frequent facility assessments were key to this progress.
Echoing these remarks, Mrs. Aisha Abubakar—Adamawa’s State Focal Person for Family Planning—said that targeted awareness efforts and advocacy were crucial in correcting misconceptions.
“Family planning focuses on spacing births, not limiting them,” she emphasized. “It supports mothers’ health and allows children to thrive. Pregnancy should be a choice, not a coincidence.”
Abubakar noted that Adamawa is home to around 1.2 million women of reproductive age, now enjoying better access to family planning commodities at local clinics.
Alhaji Kabiru Hayatu, District Head of Kajoli in Jada Local Government Area, added a community perspective: “When mothers are healthy, the whole family flourishes.”
“We use our platforms to stress the advantages of child spacing, and we encourage men to support their wives in making informed decisions on modern contraceptives,” he said. “Birth spacing supports strong, healthy children and gives mothers time to recover.”
Several families told the News Agency of Nigeria that these interventions have encouraged greater acceptance of modern contraceptive options in rural areas.
Hajiya Maryam Musa, a 29-year-old trader from Jimeta, Yola North, said that adopting family planning enabled her to regain her health and provide better care for her children.
“I’m now in my second marriage and have eight children. After a miscarriage during my ninth pregnancy, I sought advice at the clinic,” she shared.
“The health workers and community leaders explained the importance of family planning for my well-being and my children’s future. I now understand how to space my pregnancies, look after myself, and give my children more attention.”
Maryam once suspected modern contraceptives could be harmful, fearing they might jeopardize her fertility.
“I used to think these methods could damage my womb or stop me from having more children,” she admitted. “That’s why I relied on traditional options, believing they were safer.”
Likewise, Malam Buba Ahmed, a farmer and community leader in Yola South, now supports his wife’s decision to seek family planning services.
“There was a time I prevented my wife from using family planning because I misunderstood its purpose,” he recounted. “In our community, it was seen as foreign or contrary to our beliefs.”
He explained that many people viewed each child as a blessing and regarded birth spacing with skepticism, believing it interfered with divine plans.
“Thankfully, our religious and traditional leaders have joined the drive to educate families,” he continued. “As myths about contraceptives fade, more families are welcoming family planning, leading to healthier homes.”
