Staff Reporter
Karachi
Greenstar Marketing (GSM) – a social enterprise operating a family planning program in Pakistan since 1991, recently hosted a forum on – Effective Communications for nationwide awareness on family-planning. Its brand – ‘Sabz Sitara’ focuses on health of family, by encouraging men to support their women in accessing family-planning. Pakistan is faced with numerous socio-economic challenges that cannot be managed without an abundance of resources. Therefore, the uncontrolled boom in the country’s population is not sustainable. It is threatening the healthy growth of the nation. In such a critical situation, every individual must act responsibly to ensure the well-being of their own children and the whole future generations. The nation needs to adopt a long-term vision for prosperity. Communicating about reproductive behavior and family-planning is a challenging task in a conservative society like Pakistan. Socio-cultural barriers inhibit open discussion of such personal and intimate relation between husband and wife. Communication between such Greenstar and its clients is also a complex task, as the service-provider must remain cautious not to hurt the sentiments of any stakeholders.tary fertility-decline and convince them about the ideal family size to ensure their wellbeing. GSM’s communication strategies include; planned interpersonal- communications at community level, mass-media campaigns and advocacy with policy makers.
