LETLHAKANE - All couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, as well as spacing of their children, says Ms Chada Kelaotswe.

The Letlhakane Project Manager of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health said this during the World Population Day commemoration in the village on Friday.

She said everyone has the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The day was remembered under the theme, Family Planning is a Right Lets Make it Real.

She said family planning programmes should enable couples and individuals to make informed decisions and choices, adding that they contribute directly and indirectly in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Ms Lorraine Petros, Miss World Population Day said commitment to human dignity and the right to freedom from fear should be renewed as the day was celebrated.

She called for joined forces to advance womens empowerment and to ensure universal access to reproductive health by 2015, noting that such services protect the health of women, mothers and their babies.

She said maternal death and disability could be reduced dramatically if every woman has access to health services throughout her life, especially during pregnancy and at child birth.

She believed family planning is also an effective means in the fight against poverty since parents could plan ahead and devote more of their resources to the education and health of each child.

The District Health Teams Principal Registered Nurse, Mrs Marah Kadibadiba-Dube described family planning as an important element in population growth because it among others determines the size of a family and child spacing.

She said parents could not give love to their children if they fail to employ spacing and commended the males in Letlhakane for making use of contraceptives as revealed by the April to June 2008 statistics.

The figures indicated that about 9288 male condoms were used while only 70 female condoms were used. Those who used the injection method stood at 761 while loop was not represented. BOPA