"Yemeni religious leader (left) and
Christian Coptic leader from Egypt
during observational study tour,
November 2006"
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Religious leaders are trusted and respected in communities
throughout the world. In many areas of Asia and the Near
East, women, men, and young people go to them for advice
and guidance on family and personal matters, including decisions
about health.
In 2006, the Asia/Near East Bureau of the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) provided funding
to USAID’s Extending Service Delivery (ESD) Project to
undertake a regional religious leaders initiative. In Yemen, the
project is providing gender- and culture-sensitive training in
reproductive health/family planning (RH/FP) topics to local
male and female Islamic leaders. As a result, many leaders
now realize they can be a valuable resource for the health and
development needs, as well as the spiritual needs, of their
communities.
The training covered such topics as birth spacing, family planning
methods, sexually transmitted infections, breastfeeding,
gender-related violence, reproductive anatomy and physiology,
and Islamic perspectives. The trainers began the session with
information on the high numbers of Yemeni women and infants
who die of pregnancy-related causes and the role of family
planning in preventing these deaths. The leaders heard explanations
from the Quran on why these are important issues for
Muslim communities.
An important follow-up to the training was a study tour that
sent the Yemeni religious leaders to Egypt to observe local
religious leaders disseminating RH/FP messages. Participants
brought their new skills and observations back and are training
other local religious leaders in Yemen. Plans are under way to
replicate the religious leaders program in other countries in
USAID’s Asia/Near East region, including Bangladesh,
Pakistan, and the Philippines.
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