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A 60th anniversary tribute:
IPPF and the Family Health of Sri Lankans
Lal HEWAPATHIRANA-Former Honorary Secretary of The
Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka
This, probably, is a story that would have unknowingly eclipsed in
the minds of our historians, who chronicled the past of the country into
chapters and books. But it is factual, epoch-making and has been
responsible for guiding the destinies of a large majority of Sri Lankan
families at least for the past 50 years, and for sure, will continue to
do so for the next many centuries to come. It is, therefore, considered
pertinent in the current perspectives of the country and its people,
especially the generations of young people.
The first episode of the story began when a Canadian Gynaecologist by
the name Mary Helen Irwin, got married to a Tamil Ceylonese Teacher,
Samuel Christian Kanagar Rutnam, whom she had met while in New York. Dr.
Irwin followed Mr. Rutnam to Ceylon in 1896 to join the American Medical
Mission in Jaffna, and moved to Colombo to get married to him two years
later. While taking up private practice, Dr Mary Rutnam also assisted
her husband, who later founded the Central College in Colombo, in his
educational and mission work. The following October, the doctor in
charge of the newly-opened Lady Havelock Hospital for Women and Children
went on sick leave, and Dr. Mary Rutnam was requested by the Medical
Department to act for her. Here she performed the first orthopaedic
surgery in Ceylon, and lectured to the first group of women medical
students, then in their final year.
At the Lady Havelock Hospital, Dr Rutnam had "some of the very
pathetic experiences of my life pertaining to poor women, who came with
anaemic problems due to child births, every year for five or six years,
pregnant mothers delivering their third or the fourth child in three
years, and little children with weight-related complications and
malnutrition, and so on." To cut a long story short, these experiences
moved her so much so, that her concern for Ceylonese rural and suburban
poorer families sank deeper and deeper, and resultantly, with the
cooperation of several public-spirited so called 'elite' ladies, most of
them from Cinnamon Garden area, she organised many health related social
service activities and societies, to help women and children, who were
vulnerable and in difficulty. In 1930, she launched the Family Welfare
Association focussing mainly on maternal health leading to spacing of
child birth, milk for children and the moral and physical well-being of
both mothers and children. However, Two World Wars interfered with all
social service activities of Dr. Rutnam, and everything came to a
standstill, denying the poor families of Ceylon the benefits of her
mission.
Child care
The second episode of the story commenced at this stage. Though Dr.
Rutnam's age dictated retirement, she never gave in, and many years
after the Second World War, at the age of 80, she re-commenced her
former activities, with a galaxy of reputed doctors and social
service-oriented ladies in Colombo. By then, Dr. Rutnam was a very
popular figure in the whole country, due to her leadership in women and
child welfare, and also as she was elected by popular vote much earlier,
as the first woman member of the Colombo Municipal Council.
Nevertheless, when her team introduced the concept of 'Family Planning',
there was thundering opposition from many quarters and despite the
affluence nature of its members, they were jeered, hooted at, and were
even subjected to receiving rotten eggs and perished tomatoes.
Undaunted, and yet more encouraged to sustain her mission, Dr Rutnam,
together with her friends, went straight in to her dream, and formed The
Family Planning Association (FPA) of Ceylon on January 15, 1953. She
contributed all the funds and the resources of her former Family Welfare
Association to the new FPA, and continued direct dialogue not only with
young and married women, but with even the married men on family health,
based on spacing of child birth and maternal and child care. In
formulating its concepts, vision and mission, the FPA believed that a
woman must be allowed to enjoy her right to control her own fertility,
and every child born in the country should be a wanted child, thus
causing men and women lead a family life with dignity and well-being.
Married couples
It was during this period of time that the FPA was recognised by the
International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) founded in Bombay an
year earlier, amidst lots of controversy. Much like in Sri Lanka, in
many other countries of the world as well, concepts of family planning,
though a human right, became a challenge to the social conventions and
traditions. Campaigners and advocates of family planning were
threatened, harassed and even imprisoned, even though its one and only
agenda was to improve the lives of women and children around the world.
However, after the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood
held in India in 1952, eight Family Planning Associations got together
to launch the IPPF. Now in its 60th year, the IPPF is a world renowned
Federation, with its headquarters based in London England, with 152
member associations, including the FPA Sri Lanka, working in 172
countries, conducting over 65,000 service points worldwide. According to
IPPF records, last year alone, and through those service points, 89
million sexual and reproductive health services have been provided.
IPPF's 60th anniversary falls on October 12.
IPPF aims to improve the quality of life of individuals by providing
and campaigning for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights through
advocacy and services, especially for poor and vulnerable people. It
defends the right of all people to enjoy sexual lives free from
ill-health, un-wanted pregnancy, violence and discrimination. IPPF works
to ensure that women are not put at unnecessary risk of injury, illness,
and death as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. It also supports a
woman's right to choose to terminate her pregnancy legally and safely.
It strives to eliminate sexually transmitted infections, and to reduce
the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. Having engaged in such a diverse
and multifaceted activities for the past six decades world over, the
Federation celebrates its 60th anniversary on October 12 this year.
Editorial 'Forward' in The Golden Jubilee Souvenir (2003) of the FPA
Sri Lanka narrates its relationship with IPPF as follows:
"Our affiliation to the IPPF was a happy circumstance. Established in
1952, just a year before FPA Sri Lanka was inaugurated, our Association
was sponsored by that great philanthropist couple, George and Barbara
Cadbury. Our membership in this august body has brought us much needed
financial support, but more so, validated our identity in the eyes of
the international donor community. Consequently, we have reaped a rich
harvest of technical and training support and exposure to the invaluable
work carried out by our sister Associations in the region and the world
over."
Public service
With the membership in the IPPF well established, and with the
guidance and support extended unreserved, the FPA Sri Lanka grew from
strength to strength. An important landmark of such cooperation was the
IPPF training to the volunteers of the Association, the staff, the
medical personnel and the medical officers in the public service.
The training included education, communication, awareness raising,
motivation and promotion on issues relating to family health, sexual and
reproductive health, conduct of medical centres and clinics, and
strategies on social marketing of family planning material, but no
compulsion to accept or practise family planning. Following IPPF
leadership, FPA Sri Lanka started showing great respect towards the
rights and the needs of the people, leaving them to decide the number of
children they would have, or the size of the family they like to have.
It also provided with medical expertise for those who wished to practise
family planning. Emphasising that married couples should have at least
one child, as a way of family planning, the Association helped
sub-fertile or infertile couples to conceive.
The third and the final episode of the story began with the advent of
the futuristic visionary Daya Abeywickrema to the chair of the Executive
Director of the FPA Sri Lanka in the year 1975.
Daya cut his teeth as a formidable leader during his association with
the Jaycees Movement in his younger days, and then engaging in much
larger projects as a unique planner and implementer being a member of
the Lions International. No sooner he took over the captaincy of the FPA
team, using the experiences gained during his previous international
exposures, Daya firmly brought about a wave of vision and mission based
policy changes, dramatically convincing the then highly sophisticated
volunteer leadership of the Association, comprising some of the most
dominant and brilliant advocates belonging to the public, private and
the social sectors.
Hailing from rural Morawaka down South, and having lived with both
rural and urban folks, he knew the needs of the people and that the
messages and services in family planning were most needed in the rural
Sri Lanka, where nearly two-thirds of the population of the country
domiciled.
He felt the pulse of the youth, and was particularly emphatic on the
involvement of the young people in education, awareness creation,
dissemination of messages on family health and motivation among the
peers. All his project proposals year after year for funding were
targetting the age group from 21 to 40 years mostly in the rural Sri
Lanka, and the IPPF saw the reality plus validity of the vision of the
Executive Director of the FPA Sri Lanka, and provided adequate funding
for their implementation.
In other words, IPPF was largely responsible for supporting the FPA
to promote knowledge, services and practices pertaining to safe
motherhood, spacing of child birth as a means of protecting the health
of both mother and child, prevention of HIV/AIDS and Sexually
Transmitted Infections, hailing womens' and childrens' rights and a
gamut of health related other services and information, all of which
became components of the full package called Family Health.
Incidentally, IPPF was also fortunate to have obtained the services
of several academically and professionally distinguished Sri Lankans in
its London Headquarters and Regional Offices. Well known Civil Servant,
Mr. Bradman Weerakoon was the Regional Director of the Indian Ocean
Region (IOR) of the IPPF from 1976 to 1977, and later was appointed to
the IPPF's most prestigious position of the Secretary General for the
period 1984 to 1989.
Another Civil Servant with an exceptional public service record in
the country, Mr. Francis Pietersz also served as the Regional Director -
IOR. The incumbent President of the FPA Sri Lanka, Dr. Pramilla
Senanayake served the IPPF as its Medical Director from 1976 until 1987,
and then as its Assistant Director General from 1987 t0 2003. She left
the IPPF to return home to Sri Lanka, where she joined the FPA as a
volunteer.
Dr. Steve W. Sinding, one time Director General of the IPPF had this
to say once, highlighting the relationship between the IPPF and the FPA
Sri Lanka:
"FPA Sri Lanka has always been a model of success within the IPPF
family, and a leader in so many areas of its work. The commitment and
the strength of its volunteers and staff have also made a tremendous
contribution to the IPPF as a whole."
Thank you IPPF! We Sri Lankans deeply appreciate and gratefully
acknowledge your contribution during the past 60 years, through our FPA
Sri Lanka and our respective governments, to guide hundreds and
thousands of our people to improve their personal and family health
status, by way of education, awareness creation and promotion of healthy
practices. We congratulate you on your wonderful achievements in the
past, and wish you a splendid future with greater strength to continue
your glorious global work programmes. |
