The Population Commission (Popcom) has shifted its population campaign from scientific ways to natural family planning after the United States government stopped the supply of contraceptives, including pills and condoms.

Popcom Central Visayas Regional Director Leo de la Rama said, several years back, their office supported by several non-government organizations had massively campaigned for scientific approaches to family planning like vasectomy and tubal ligation and encouraging the use of condoms and pills.

“These contraceptives for several years were given to us by the USAid and that the same will also be given to the couples for free, but now this will be purchased by the users unless the National Government and the local government units will shoulder the cost it entails,” de la Rama said.

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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will fund the new $1.3 million two-year project that will include six months of formative research and training and eighteen months of production and broadcast of a serial radio drama using the Sabido methodology for behavior change (accompanied by monitoring and evaluation research).

The radio program will address issues related to child protection, trafficking of children across international borders and the link between this problem and poverty-inducing factors such as unplanned childbearing. The program will also confront underlying issues (such as insufficient family income) that put children at risk of exploitative labor situations. Often, children or their parents believe that offers of employment (such as on cocoa plantations) for their children will result in added income to the family, while in reality, such offers sometimes lead to long hours of hard labor with little or no pay, and frequent beatings or other physical abuse.

Population Media Center (PMC) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works worldwide with the broadcast media, educating people about the benefits of small families; promoting the protection of children from exploitation, elevating the status of women; promoting the use of effective family planning methods; and motivating behavior change for the avoidance of HIV/AIDS.

The U.S. Agency for International Development administers the U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide.