By Sola Ogundipe

In its resolve to sustain support to couples and individuals facing fertility challenges, the Fertility Awareness Advocacy Initiative, FAAI, is  creating an advocacy workframe to promote its awareness drive on fertility solutions in Nigeria.

The initiative says it hopes to facilitate this by taking its advocacy drive to the doorstep of Nigerians through enhance its presence in the public space and synergizing its activities.

Disclosing this during a virtual media roundtable, the President of FAAI, Mr. Kesena Igben, stressed that FAAI offers a safe space for individuals and couples struggling with infertility to connect, share experiences, and receive emotional support.

“Infertility is a global challenge, and FAAI raises awareness and educates the public about available treatment options, this can help to dispel the common myths and misconceptions surrounding infertility.

“I’m actually  looking toward  where we should be by the end of the year and how we will create massive awareness.  For those of us that have benefited from FAAI’s advocacy, the joy that we received cannot be quantified, and for me as president, the task is to be able to publicise this awareness so well that people become aware of it.”

Reeling off some of their activities, Igben noted that series of symposiums, TV shows, and TV talks were being done to facilitate awareness.

“If people  are aware and then they join this Association, then we can show them the path, the easy way to resolve some of  these fertility issues. In  Africa, particularly Nigeria, there is a lot of superstition.

Something will be happening, and instead of people to research and find solution, they go spiritual.

“Everybody just becomes spiritual, but no, we should be able to stop that process – that is our goal; how to stop the process, how to make people to be aware, how people should or should not seek help, how we can give counseling to people through a counseling hub. If there is a hotline whereby you can call in, somebody’s there to attend to you, to listen to you.

“So we are going to create a framework, a framework to be able to synergize, but the key thing is for us is  visibility through all the channels.

“If information is going out regularly for people to be aware, and they know how to reach out to us,  a time will come that we will be able to give solutions to so many families and bring joy to them.”

Igben said FAAI was currently harnessing in-house resources for a big drive for sponsorship to identify indigent couples that can be assisted to benefit from treatment so that they too, can have their joy.

“That is our real focal point, and to do that, we need sponsors. We are planning to do our launch fair in Lagos here, and we also want to go to the religious houses to have pep talks and also to other areas within the community.”

Also speaking, the FAAI Vice President. Mrs Vivian Patrick, explained that the awareness drive was crucial.  On advocacy, she said FAAI fights for better access to fertility care and resources in Nigeria, and was focused on lobbying the government for policy changes and raising funds to subsidize treatment costs.

“It is through awareness that people will get to know and understand what infertility issues are and how to go about dealing with them, because a lot of people are just hiding in their shells.

“They are facing this problem, but  society and the environment have not made it easy for them to come out and talk or seek for help in the appropriate place. So one of FAAI’s  objectives is to bridge this gap.”

On her part, FAAI Secretary, Mrs. Victoria Agubama, regretted the myths circulating about assisted fertility programmes. “We need to break those myths. We are taking the bull by the horn. We ar…