"More people are using the services, and often come for condoms, especially at the weekend".
Binta is a community based distribution agent for the Gambian Family Planning Association, in her village Nawlerou.
"I have been a volunteer for 12 years and was one of the first to get involved in this kind of work in my district.
I do it because I believe it is important to do something that benefits the rest of the community rather than just to help myself and my family. I benefited from family planning and wanted my community to do the same.
I was trained by GFPA and have a stock of contraceptives that I can distribute to the community. Everyone in the village knows that if they need contraception or Sexual and Reproductive Health advice they can come to me. If I need to I refer people to the clinic in town. I go to visit my regular clients in their homes if I haven't seen them for a while just to make sure everything is ok.
When I first started there was a lot of opposition to family planning, even visiting the clinic was hard as the men didn’t like their wives going to the clinic.
I was the only volunteer in the district, only 10 people came to me for advice and contraceptives, now there are more community based distribution agents volunteering in nearby villages and 70 people come to me for advice and supplies.
To do my work I had to sensitise the community, and this took a long time. I had to explain why family planning was important and how it could help the community not harm it.
Things have changed now, there is less opposition from the community and more competition from other agents!
Although there is still some opposition, mainly from the men in the village. More and more are using the services, and often come for condoms, especially at the weekend.
When I talk about family planning in my village I don’t just talk about preventing unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, I talk about dual protection too. The women in the village are happy that I have told them about it and they have managed to persuade their husbands about the benefits of using condoms".