In the first video of the series “Choice and Change,” a series which takes a closer look at family planning in the developing world, we visit an island on Lake Victoria where a radical project combining contraception and conservation has helped save a community.
Not long ago, the population of Uganda’s Bussi Island, on Lake Victoria, was growing so quickly that fish stocks had nearly been wiped out. Trees were being cut down at an alarming rate. Then in 2011, a sexual health charity Pathfinder International teamed up with two conservation charities and launched Hope LVB. The radical project promoting family planning alongside sustainable fishing and agricultural policies has seen the birth rate on Bussi Island drop and fish stocks increase. With smaller families, the population can now feed itself without damaging the island’s ecosystem.
