Senegal’s ‘schools for husbands’ aim to shift gender roles and keep mothers from dying

On a current night in Senegal ‘s capital of Dakar, an imam named Ibrahima Diane defined to a bunch of males why they need to be extra concerned in family chores.

“The Prophet himself says a person who doesn’t assist assist his spouse and kids isn’t a very good Muslim,” the 53-year-old stated, as he described bathing his child and serving to his spouse with different duties.

Among the 14 males chuckled, not fairly offered. Others applauded.

Diane was collaborating in a “college for husbands,” a United Nations-backed initiative the place revered male group members find out about “optimistic masculinity” in well being and social points and promote them of their communities.

In Senegal, as in lots of different West African nations with giant rural or conservative populations, males typically have the ultimate say in main family selections, together with ones associated to well being.

Ladies might have their permission for life-changing selections on accessing household planning or different reproductive well being companies, together with hospital deliveries or prenatal care.

Following his periods on the college for husbands, Diane recurrently holds sermons throughout Friday prayers the place he discusses points round gender and reproductive well being, from gender-based violence to combating stigma round HIV.

“Many ladies admire my sermons,” he stated. “They are saying their husbands’ habits modified since they attended them.” He stated some males have instructed him the sermons impressed them to change into extra caring husbands and fathers.

Habib Diallo, a 60-year-old former military commando, stated attending the sermons and discussions with the imam taught him concerning the dangers of house births.

“When my son’s spouse was pregnant, I inspired him to take her to the hospital for the supply,” Diallo stated. “At first, he was hesitant. He apprehensive about the price and didn’t belief the hospital. However once I defined how a lot safer it could be for each his spouse and the infant, he agreed.”

No extra barking orders

This system launched in Senegal in 2011 however lately has caught the eye of the Ministry of Ladies, Household, Gender and Baby Safety, which sees it an efficient technique to fight maternal and toddler mortality.

“With out males’s involvement, attitudes round maternal well being gained’t change,” stated 54-year-old Aida Diouf, a feminine well being employee who collaborates with this system. Many husbands choose their wives not be handled by male well being staff, she stated.

The lessons for husbands comply with related efforts in different African nations, significantly Niger, Togo, and Burkina Faso, the place the United Nations Inhabitants Fund says it improved ladies’s entry to reproductive well being companies by rising male involvement, rising using contraceptives by each women and men and increasing entry to prenatal care and expert start attendants.

Discussions for males even have targeted on ladies’ rights, equality and the dangerous results of feminine genital mutilation.

This system now operates over 20 colleges in Senegal, and over 300 males have been skilled.

In some communities, males who as soon as enforced patriarchal norms now promote gender equality, which has led to a discount within the variety of pressured marriages and extra acceptance of household planning, in accordance with Senegal’s ministry of gender.

Males be part of the teams after being recruited primarily based on belief, management and dedication. Candidates have to be married, revered domestically and supportive of girls’s well being and rights.

After coaching, the boys act as peer educators, visiting properties and internet hosting casual talks.

“My husband used to not do a lot round the home, simply bark orders. Now he really cooks and helps out with day by day duties,” stated Khary Ndeye, 52.

Nonetheless too many dying in childbirth

Whereas maternal and toddler deaths in Senegal have declined over the previous decade, specialists say it nonetheless has a protracted method to go. It recorded 237 maternal deaths for each 100,000 stay births in 2023, whereas 21 newborns out of each 1,000 died inside their first month. The U.N. globally desires to cut back maternal deaths to 70 deaths per 100,000 stay births and new child deaths to beneath 12 per 1,000 by 2030.

One key drawback was that many ladies have been giving start at house, stated El Hadj Malick, one of many Senegal program’s coordinators.

“By educating males concerning the significance of supporting their wives throughout being pregnant, taking them to the hospital and serving to with home work from home, you’re defending folks’s well being,” Malick stated.

He stated he nonetheless experiences problem altering mindsets on some points.

“Once we simply discuss to them about gender, there’s typically rigidity as a result of it’s seen as one thing summary and even overseas,” Malick stated. Some males mistakenly imagine such discuss will promote LGBTQ+ points, which stay largely taboo in a lot of West Africa.

“However after we give attention to ladies’s proper to be wholesome, it places a human face on the idea and its turns into common,” Malick stated.