Mobilizing Muslim Religious Leaders for Reproductive Health and Family Planning at the Community Level

This manual, created by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Extending Service Delivery Project (ESD), is a 5-day training curriculum designed to equip male and female Muslim religious leaders with the necessary information and skills to better understand, accept, and support the provision of maternal and child health, reproductive health, and family planning (MCH/RH/FP) information and services at the community level. The ultimate goal of the training within the manual is to build the capacity and leadership of Muslim religious leaders in MCH/RH/FP and gender to support couples and community members in making informed decisions on reproductive health issues such as safe motherhood, child spacing, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and to discourage harmful behaviours, especially gender-based violence. The manual presents concepts of MCH/RH/FP from a perspective that is consistent with and supported by the teachings of Islam. In addition, there are sections devoted to the needs of youth and building the leadership capacity of religious leaders.

The contents include the following sections and annexes, as well as 14 handouts:

• Training Preparation
• Session 1: Welcome and Overview
  
• Session 2: Reproductive Health/Family Planning and Islam
  
• Session 3: Relationship between Men and Women in Islam
  
• Session 4: Prevention of Violence against Women and Men’s Role
  
• Session 5: Safe Motherhood - Definition
  
• Session 6A: Safe Motherhood - Promoting Safe Pregnancy and Childbirth (in countries where FGC [female genital circumcision] IS NOT practised)
  
• Session 6B: Safe Motherhood - Promoting Safe Pregnancy and Childbirth (in countries where FGC IS practised)
  
• Session 7: Safe Motherhood - Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP)
  
• Session 8: Safe Motherhood - Breast Feeding
  
• Session 9: Islam and Child Spacing
  
• Session 10: HTSP and Child Spacing for Maternal and Child Health and Survival
  
• Session 11: Introduction to Youth Development
  
• Session 12: Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS
  
• Session 13: Leadership Skills
  
• Session 14: Community Mobilization
• Session 15: Development and Presentation of Action Plans
  
• Session 16: Workshop Evaluation and Closure
  
• Annex 1: Background Readings for Selected Sessions
  
• Annex 2: Pre- and Post-training Knowledge Test for Participants
  
• Annex 3: Participant Feedback Form on Individual Session
  
• Annex 4: Action Plan Record for RL [Religious Leader] Activities (Personal Reporting Form)
  
• Annex 5: End of Course Evaluation
  
• Annex 6: Pre and Post-test Answer Guide

At the end of the training, participants should be able to:

• define RH/FP and describe its components: safe motherhood including child survival and management of complications of unsafe abortion/miscarriage; birth or child spacing (family planning); prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS; and the prevention of gender-based violence, including the discouragement of harmful traditional practices;
• dispel myths and misconceptions about RH/FP;
• identify gender constraints to RH/FP including MCH;
• describe the Islamic perspectives on RH/FP information and services;
• identify ways in which religious leaders can help mobilise the community around MCH/RH/FP; and
• develop action plans in support of MCH/RH/FP information and services in their communities.

All of the Qur’anic messages and Islamic information presented in the manual is referenced so that the trainer can research the information him/herself and share the sources with the participants. The Islamic interpretations are based on scholarly work, mainly that of Professor of Abdel Rahim Omran, which is approved by Al-Azhar University.

For hard copies, please contact Leah Freij at LFreij@esdproj.org