Some Thoughts on Carrying Out Male Health Promotion and Education Work – Duan Jianhua, Guangzhou
Conduct men's health education
Some thoughts on work
Duan Jianhua, Director of the Publicity and Education Department of the Guangzhou Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission
Guangzhou is among the first batch of pilot cities for the "Men's Health Promotion and Education Project," and the only pilot city in South my country. Therefore, we must carry out this work effectively and provide successful experience for the whole country.
I. The Significance of Conducting Male Reproductive Health Education and Promotion Work
1. The fundamental task of population and family planning publicity and education is to disseminate scientific, civilized, and progressive knowledge about marriage, childbearing, and reproductive health to the vast number of people of childbearing age, thereby guiding them to establish new concepts of fertility culture, improving the quality of family life, and providing strong ideological guarantees and public opinion support for achieving the great strategic goal of coordinated and sustainable development of population, economy, society, resources, and environment.
2. The "Decision on Strengthening Population and Family Planning Work and Stabilizing the Low Fertility Level" issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council requires "taking human development as the center" and adhering to "people-oriented" principles. It also requires that in the next ten years, building a new reproductive culture and jointly providing family planning technical services and reproductive health services related to fertility, contraception, and infertility should be considered as two important tasks. Therefore, our proposal to carry out male reproductive health education is undoubtedly the best action to study and implement the spirit of the "Decision".
3. In recent years, the "New Marriage and Childbearing Customs Entering Every Household" campaign, jointly launched by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the National Population and Family Planning Commission, has promoted the concepts of "late marriage and late childbearing," "fewer and better births," "boys and girls are equal," and "male participation in family planning" as key components, achieving excellent results. The Publicity Department and the National Population and Family Planning Commission have now established the "New Marriage and Childbearing Customs Entering Every Household" campaign as an important brand within the overall strategy of building spiritual civilization, and have decided to summarize and commend it at an appropriate time in 2001. The proposed "Male Reproductive Health Publicity and Education" work undoubtedly enriches the connotation of the "New Marriage and Childbearing Customs Entering Every Household" campaign, enhances and perfects its brand, and supplements and improves the entire family planning publicity and education work. Its significance is far-reaching and will surely generate good social benefits.
4. Reproductive health is a new concept advocated by the international community in recent years, especially in developed countries and regions, such as our Pearl River Delta region. With the significant achievements in both spiritual and material civilization construction, we have even more reason to propose improving the quality of life, promoting sexual civilization and health, and enjoying a happy life. Therefore, we have the prerequisites to carry out this work effectively and should provide popular science knowledge on this topic to the vast majority of people of reproductive age, especially men, to help them create a happy and harmonious married life and improve the quality of family life, thereby arousing men's enthusiasm for actively participating in family planning work.
II. A clear understanding of reproductive health is essential.
Reproductive health refers to all matters concerning the reproductive system, its functions, and processes, including physical and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Reproductive health means that people can have satisfactory and safe sexual relations, that both men and women have the right to know and actually access safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as methods of regulating fertility rates of their choice that do not violate the law, and that they have the right to appropriate healthcare services that enable women to conceive and give birth safely, providing couples with the best opportunity to give birth to healthy babies. The main factors affecting reproductive health are both economic and social. The level of economic development is the most direct and primary factor affecting people's reproductive health.
Our "Men's Health Day" campaign is initiated with the aim of focusing on men's reproductive health, family health and happiness, and raising the enthusiasm of male citizens to participate in family planning, thereby providing experience and role models for the whole country.
III. Correctly Understanding and Grasping the Relationship Between Promoting Men's Health Knowledge and Family Planning
1. Correctly define the relationship between primary and secondary responsibilities. Publicity and education should embody the principles of "people-centeredness" and "high-quality service." Caring for people's health, especially men's health, is the starting point for encouraging male participation in family planning. Promoting "male reproductive health" is a high starting point in itself; understanding this initiative and correctly defining its role and relationship is crucial for conducting pilot programs. In particular, it's essential to eliminate any initial misunderstandings and focus on addressing erectile dysfunction (ED) as the entry point for caring for men's physical and mental health. This will gain the understanding and support of male citizens, garner social recognition and support, and then encourage men (husbands) to consciously shoulder their responsibilities in family, society, reproduction, contraception, and eugenics, fulfilling their responsibilities as husbands in family production, life, and reproduction.
If the entire family planning publicity and education campaign is a symphony of spiritual civilization, the main theme is establishing scientific, civilized, and progressive concepts of marriage and childbearing, while the secondary theme is focusing on family happiness and building a better life. The main theme begins with an introduction and prologue, while the secondary theme needs contrast and support from the main theme. Just as our family planning publicity services address infertility, just as our concern for the masses' production and poverty alleviation, just as our attention to early childhood education for children aged 0-3, just as our assistance to menopausal couples in alleviating their suffering. In the early 1990s, we praised the "three-pronged approach" of family planning as a "road of hope" for rural areas to achieve prosperity and a better life through fewer births. I believe that today, the "Male Health Promotion Project" that we are about to gradually implement in cities will become a "road of happiness" that focuses on men and benefits families.
2. Properly manage the relationship between the cause and the enterprise for mutual promotion and prosperity. The National Population and Family Planning Commission's selection of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. for the "Male Reproductive Health Promotion and Education Project" was based on a significant consideration: to explore a path where the cause of family planning promotion and education and reputable and capable enterprises, both domestic and foreign, can mutually promote each other, achieve mutual prosperity, and ensure that social and economic benefits complement each other.
Implementing family planning, building a new socialist culture of reproduction, and vigorously carrying out publicity and education work on population and family planning all require the support and assistance of enterprises. Similarly, the development and prosperity of enterprises are inseparable from the development and progress of public welfare undertakings. As Director Weiqing said, "We promote enterprises through our work, and our work is supported by our enterprises." Family planning is a public welfare undertaking that benefits the present and future generations. Our cooperative project with Pfizer, a globally renowned large enterprise, is an inevitable result of the development of our work, the progress of our enterprise, and the advancement of society towards civilization. We will have many more collaborations with Pfizer experts in the future. We should view the entire phase of implementing the "Male Reproductive Health Publicity and Education Project" as a phase of mutual learning, mutual assistance, leveraging each other's strengths, and common development.
Family planning publicity and education cover a wide range of fields, including population theory, policy, law, statistics, psychology, physiology, medicine, and home economics. Regarding knowledge about male reproductive health, we should learn from and consult with Pfizer's experts, including the application of publicity strategies, methods, and techniques, the design and production of promotional materials, the positioning of the company's image, and a responsible "people-oriented" spirit. Through this collaborative project, we will enrich our knowledge and improve our skills and service quality in conducting publicity and education for the public.
3. Address the relationship between focusing on men's health and mobilizing men's participation. Publicity is about guidance and mobilization. Our goal is to improve men's awareness and sense of responsibility in family planning. However, where does male participation begin? What are the specific contents of male participation? Male participation is not merely about proactively taking effective measures in contraception. To awaken men's genuine social participation awareness, we must recognize their position in society and family, understanding that men are half of humanity, important members of the family, and that their concepts, awareness, knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and actions directly affect the quality of family life. Therefore, we have found a starting point: first, we must care about the practical problems and difficulties that men themselves hope to solve, putting ourselves in their shoes, guiding them with correct and scientific knowledge, and encouraging men (especially married men) to befriend us, actively and bravely participating in our activities. First, we must understand ourselves as men, discover and solve reproductive health problems, and realize that "ED" for men is not just a sexual dysfunction, but an undeniable warning signal reflecting a man's underlying physical health condition through his reproductive system. We do good deeds to care for men's reproductive health, and then further inspire their sense of responsibility in a series of areas such as marital life, family harmony, having children, and social roles. Men's health and men's participation are like the beginning and the start of a journey, moving from the surface to the core, from this to that, from "ED" to self-understanding, from reproductive health to understanding couples, from marital life to understanding family, from family to understanding children, and from raising children to understanding social responsibility.