My name is Kirsten Miner and I’m a first year MPH student in the Maternal and Child Health department. I’m passionate about reproductive health and family planning, particularly for those women who live at the “last mile” – women who live and work in rural areas for whom access to health care is a challenge. I’m interested in learning about novel ways the global health community is tackling this challenge, and I couldn’t have found a better internship to explore this interest than my current practicum: the Sayana® Press project under PATH Uganda!
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Sayana® Press is an all-in-one injectable contraceptive offering three months of pregnancy prevention. It is similar to Depo-Provera, another injectable contraceptive that is widely popular across Sub-Saharan Africa. However, Sayana® Press is unique in that it doesn’t require a trained health professional to administer it. Lay health workers such as Community Health Workers, and even women themselves, are qualified to inject with appropriate training. This makes Sayana® Press an excellent solution for women living in rural areas: they can access training through their health center and then take home enough units to use for up to a full calendar year, preventing frequent returns to the clinic to access contraceptive services.
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For my practicum, I joined PATH’s Advancing Contraceptive Options project which is the major driver for Sayana® Press introduction in Uganda and has been training Ugandan women in four districts to self-inject with the drug. This week (my first week on the project!) the team launched Phase I of their evaluation of self-injection in order to determine best practices and cost-efficacy. I was able to join the evaluation team on a site visit to Oyam District in northern Uganda to support the launch and learn the ins and outs of the evaluation process.
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I’m excited to continue participating in the evaluation and learning about the project!
-Kirsten