World Population Day celebrated
The celebration, organized by the National Population Council, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), focused on providing reproductive health services and boosting awareness among residents about it.
The National Population Council said that reproductive health and family planning are the most important things to combat population growth and reduce maternal mortality.
According to UNFPA, the maternal mortality rate in Yemen is the highest in the region. Every day, about six women die while giving birth to children in Yemen. The main reasons behind this figure are the lack of services, health information and midwives.
Some women die because of unplanned pregnancy. Moreover, some of them face complications during childbirth and others suffer from fistula which affects their health negatively.
Marc Vandenberghe, a representative of UNFPA, said “we contact women as well as men because when women get health care it is for the advantage of the entire society.
“We focus on young men because they are able to reduce population growth,” he said. “The regional program plan lasts from 2012 to 2015, has a $25 billion budget and aims to improve sexual health and reproductive health and reduce maternal mortality in order to achieve balance in population growth, which undoubtedly contributes in achieving balance between residents’ growth and needs.”
Mutahar Zabarah, assistant secretary-general of the UNFPA in Yemen asserted that WPD is simply to remind Yemen that it is still suffering population growth. He stated that the population in Yemen has increased significantly during the last few years due to high fertility rates among mothers. Population growth has caused a significant increase in the rate of unemployment among the youth.
Zabarah stressed the importance of spreading awareness among society to decrease maternal mortality rates. He asserted that education in reproductive health lies at the crux of the issue.
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