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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2001
Ghana's President Launches New "Life Choices" Family
Planning Campaign To Curb Rapid Population Growth
Accra, GHANA—The President of the Republic of Ghana, J.A. Kufuor, has launched a new national family planning promotional campaign dubbed “Life Choices” to help curb rapid population growth in the African nation.
The campaign, which was officially launched October 17 at the State House in Accra, is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) and the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation, in partnership with the Ministries of Information and Health and the National Population Council, are implementing the new campaign.
“Planning your family does not mean you do not want children or love children. Planning your family and limiting the number of children you have to the number you can afford to look after comfortably is a sign of how much you love children,” said President Kufuor. “Every Ghanaian child deserves to be loved, cherished and given access to all the facilities that modern life offers.”
President Kufuor said that even if all of the new economic programs and policies put in place since independence were successful, “we would still have difficulties simply trying to keep up with meeting the needs and expectations [of our people given] such a dramatic rise in population.”
The “Life Choices” campaign goal is to empower Ghanaians to manage their fertility and determine the timing and number of children they want and can care for. The culturally appropriate campaign seeks to demonstrate how contraceptive use can help individuals achieve their goals in life and improve the quality of their lives.
According to USAID, only about 13 percent of the country's married women use modern contraception methods. Ghana's population is now 18.5 million.
JHU/CCP is a pioneer in the field of strategic, research-based communication for behavior change and health promotion that has helped transform the theory and practice of public health communications. With representatives in more than 30 countries, JHU/CCP has been a leader in the development of projects based on systematic needs assessments and clear strategies for positioning and presenting the benefits of health interventions to appropriate audiences.
For more information contact: Kim Martin at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA. Tel: 410 659-6140; Fax: 410 659-6266 e-mail: press@jhuccp.org. WEB SITE: http://www.jhuccp.org PRESS ROOM: http://www.jhuccp.org/pressroom/
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