‘Happy Life’

Saturday, 15 March 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A portal for sexual and reproductive health knowledge

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam Most Asians tend to shy away from topics relating to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) since discussions on it, especially amongst the youth, are considered taboo. The situation is not so different in Sri Lanka since, like its neighbours, it has a conservative culture. However, treating this essential topic as ‘inappropriate’ and ‘unimportant’ has lead to a number of issues in Sri Lanka which includes higher instances of HIV, child abuse and teenage pregnancies. Having identified the pressing need to get SRH information across the masses, the Family Planning Association (an accredited member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, IPPF) took the lead and conceptualised a pioneering initiative by launching ‘Happy Life’. While socio-cultural norms continue to label discussions of SRH services as a social taboo, discussions between parents-children, teacher-students, and even spouses are considered embarrassing. Pressures of modern life and consulting medical specialists deters people from obtaining professional SRH guidance and the dwindling of the extended family system sees the isolation of youth. While in the West students are exposed to sexuality education, in countries such as Sri Lanka this is not the case, Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka Medical Director Dr. Sumithra Tissera told the Weekend FT. “In schools, sexuality education is still not provided to students although it is incorporated in the syllabus. When young adults come to a stage where they need to know about their bodies and are curious about the changes, they are compelled to seek information from friends or questionable sources,” pointed out Dr. Tissera, who is the key person in kicking off the Happy Life initiative. “This unique concept came to forefront in this context, to provide reliable information to the youth in a confidential manner so they could access the services using communication tools they are fluent with.” Birth of an innovate service Happy Life, a contact centre which is the only one of its kind in Sri Lanka was launched in 2009 to provide counselling and guidance to the general public, but with special emphasis on young people through a choice of multiple uses of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. It uses modern interactive ICT tools to provide information on Reproductive & Sexual health in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages to locals by a group of doctors and counsellors. Developed with technical and financial assistance from the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) Sri Lanka under the e-society Development initiative program, the services uses tools such as informative web content, real time chat support, trilingual email based counselling support, along with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and SMS gateway to provide counselling. Need for such a service An IT platform accessible in privacy to obtain reliable information on SRH issues, free of charge, allows focus on the SRH issues free of associated costs. While identity and privacy of individuals seeking advice is protected, confidentiality of the communication is assured. “The mainstream health system of Sri Lanka confines itself to providing SRH services to married couples. The project is accessible to everyone from all walks of life around the country. Most persons are reluctant to seek advice related to SRH due to many reasons. This method of knowledge transfer does not need the person concerned to come to a clinic, divulge the identity and seek assistance from anywhere else,” noted Dr. Tissera. Common concerns Since the launch in 2009 the number of persons reaching out to Happy Life has increased greatly and it is usually the youth seeking services, which justified the need for such a centre. Dr. Tissera shared that main concerns amongst majority were related to ‘family planning’ where they mostly seek clarification on using temporary methods of contraception and the emergency contraceptive pill. The youth are also noted to question greatly on areas such as menstrual cycle, masturbation, sexual problems such as premature ejaculation, loss of libido, and impotence, and HIV/AIDS. Challenges faced According to Dr. Tissera, the main challenge was including the whole concept of sexuality in the project as the word ‘sex’ itself gives different meanings to the community. With sex associated with “bad habits,” she said they were faced with issues in promoting the Happy Life contact centre as all communication materials were allowed only to carry the tagline ‘Providing reliable Reproductive Health Service’. “Sexuality being taboo and considered bad is a big issue. Doing so, people gain wrong information which eventually leads to negative acts and experimentation. This is seen through the media where an increasing number of sexual offences towards young persons are reported almost daily.” Dr. Tissera stressed this can be addressed by extending age appropriate comprehensive sexuality education in schools to adolescents so they are equipped with correct knowledge and skills to understand their own body. “Though this easier said than done as there is still an ongoing debate on this issue as to whom and to what extent this should the information be provided. With the Youth Policy being accepted and disseminated, it is the right time for all concerned to sit and prepare a way to move forward in the right direction. It should be a combined effort of the Education, Health and Youth Ministries, media and all other parties who are concerned and working on youth.” Increasing awareness The key to getting about this is to start from school level by having open minded trained persons sharing such information so that children are made comfortable. “It is important they don’t jump into conclusions and make the children uncomfortable when they voice their concerns. Not doing so will only result the child to go into a shell and seek advice from unreliable sources.” She added the need to have a private space for youth where they can discuss their issues confidentially. The promotion of service centres such as Happy Life among the youth will give them the confidence that they are not alone. A rewarding experience The success of Happy Life has led to the service being replicated in other member associations of the IPPF. While the concept has fetched FPA Sri Lanka many awards, Dr. Tissera expressed that it is rewarding to note that the service is greatly used by the public, thus a small step taken towards change. “It is rewarding to see the number of persons seeking the service to be increasing over the years. Many of our clients, happy with the services have referred their friends and colleagues to our clinics. This has allowed us to increase our services.”

Future plans To make information more accessible to the public, FPA Sri Lanka is in discussion with telecom providers to make the Happy Life contact number toll free. With the services currently being provided during weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Happy Life is looking to extend its working hours. FPA Sri Lanka is a NGO that has been in establishment since 1953. The organisation is funded by donors and supports itself through its Social Marketing Program which markets contraceptive products across the country through a network of registered distributors and pharmacies.