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"Women, Demystified: Overcoming Myths in Armenia's Villages"
http://hetq.am/eng/news/24253/women-demystified-overcoming-myths-in-armenias-villages.html
21:40, March 8, 2013
Myths about women's health make their way up and down gravel stone
streets, traveling from the rocky mountainside to homes casted in
concrete and tufa, meandering from the bedroom to the laundry line,
whispered from neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, sister to
sister, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. Myths are a way of life in
the remote villages of Armenia.
Did you know that the pill causes your hair to fall out, damages your
internal organs, and leads to infertility? Have you heard that
condoms aren't effective, bad for a man's health, and causes
allergies? What about the IUD? Did you know that it leads to
infections and cysts? Well, if you haven't heard about these side
effects before, it's because none of what I just wrote is true. But
these are the myths I hear every week.
I've been working with COAF as a volunteer since the autumn of 2012,
and my role has primarily been as a women's health myth-buster. (Yes,
I'm like the science educators on TV, except my myth busting is less
explosive.) Each week, I accompany the Lusine Antonyan & Lusine
Sahakyan dynamic duo to one of the COAF target villages. During the
first couple months of my time with COAF, I was meeting with women
one-on-one or in small group sessions and counseling them about their
contraceptive options, alongside former volunteer, Taleen Khoury
Moughamian. Since the start of the new year, I have been conducting a
research study on the social influences that impact family planning
decisions, as well as continuing the counseling sessions at the end of
each of my interviews.
At first I was surprised by these myths about contraception that the
women would relay to me and alarmed at how abortion is still used as
the main method of family planning. However, in reading about Soviet
health `education' campaigns and the lack of available information on
this topic, I now understand why these myths have perpetuated and how
the deep-seated reliance on abortion stems from Soviet ideology,
policies, and current socio-economic conditions.
When I speak with the women, I like to share anecdotes from my own
experiences. Though raised in different countries and under different
conditions, I, like many of the women with whom I speak, am a young
woman in my mid-to-late 20s, married, and thinking about family
planning. I know that by being able to relate to the women that my
impact is greater. But myth busting is just touching the surface.
What we need to create is a community-led initiative that will
continue to spread knowledge about reproductive health, as well as
help empower women and enable them to create better livelihoods.
With the help of COAF, there will soon be a shuffle of women's voices
>From up and down the gravel stone streets, from rooftop to rooftop,
>From home to home... but these whispering voices will have taken on a
new narrative. In place of myth-spreading, there will be an exchange
of knowledge. Women will become empowered to make good decisions for
themselves and their families. Husbands and mothers-in-law will
understand the importance of family planning for their wives,
daughters-in-law, and children. The village status quo will have
become a distant memory of the past.
Ani Jilozian
Fulbright Research Fellow
Masters of Public Health Student
From: Baghdasarian
http://hetq.am/eng/news/24253/women-demystified-overcoming-myths-in-armenias-villages.html
21:40, March 8, 2013
Myths about women's health make their way up and down gravel stone
streets, traveling from the rocky mountainside to homes casted in
concrete and tufa, meandering from the bedroom to the laundry line,
whispered from neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, sister to
sister, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. Myths are a way of life in
the remote villages of Armenia.
Did you know that the pill causes your hair to fall out, damages your
internal organs, and leads to infertility? Have you heard that
condoms aren't effective, bad for a man's health, and causes
allergies? What about the IUD? Did you know that it leads to
infections and cysts? Well, if you haven't heard about these side
effects before, it's because none of what I just wrote is true. But
these are the myths I hear every week.
I've been working with COAF as a volunteer since the autumn of 2012,
and my role has primarily been as a women's health myth-buster. (Yes,
I'm like the science educators on TV, except my myth busting is less
explosive.) Each week, I accompany the Lusine Antonyan & Lusine
Sahakyan dynamic duo to one of the COAF target villages. During the
first couple months of my time with COAF, I was meeting with women
one-on-one or in small group sessions and counseling them about their
contraceptive options, alongside former volunteer, Taleen Khoury
Moughamian. Since the start of the new year, I have been conducting a
research study on the social influences that impact family planning
decisions, as well as continuing the counseling sessions at the end of
each of my interviews.
At first I was surprised by these myths about contraception that the
women would relay to me and alarmed at how abortion is still used as
the main method of family planning. However, in reading about Soviet
health `education' campaigns and the lack of available information on
this topic, I now understand why these myths have perpetuated and how
the deep-seated reliance on abortion stems from Soviet ideology,
policies, and current socio-economic conditions.
When I speak with the women, I like to share anecdotes from my own
experiences. Though raised in different countries and under different
conditions, I, like many of the women with whom I speak, am a young
woman in my mid-to-late 20s, married, and thinking about family
planning. I know that by being able to relate to the women that my
impact is greater. But myth busting is just touching the surface.
What we need to create is a community-led initiative that will
continue to spread knowledge about reproductive health, as well as
help empower women and enable them to create better livelihoods.
With the help of COAF, there will soon be a shuffle of women's voices
>From up and down the gravel stone streets, from rooftop to rooftop,
>From home to home... but these whispering voices will have taken on a
new narrative. In place of myth-spreading, there will be an exchange
of knowledge. Women will become empowered to make good decisions for
themselves and their families. Husbands and mothers-in-law will
understand the importance of family planning for their wives,
daughters-in-law, and children. The village status quo will have
become a distant memory of the past.
Ani Jilozian
Fulbright Research Fellow
Masters of Public Health Student
From: Baghdasarian