By Chandani Kunwar, Communication, Documentation and Knowledge Management Officer, MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery Nepal

Meet Aashif Qureshi, a 29-year-old health assistant from Nepalgunj, Banke, Lumbini Province in Nepal. He runs a small pharmacy—Aashif Medical Hall, located in Setu BK Chowk—a bustling market area in his hometown. Ashif shares that there are around 500 households in the area, which is home to many of his clients, most of whom are from Muslim and Dalit communities.

Aashif decided to enter the medical field because of a desire to serve his own community. He explained that, while family planning (FP) may be a sensitive issue for some communities and religious groups, he views it as part of reproductive health rights, and he understands the importance of expanding access to good healthcare.

Aashif speaks of challenges like stigma, language barriers, and myths and misconceptions that keep people in his neighborhood from accessing FP services. He states that some in his community say: “I have heard myths like condoms cause problems in the uterus and injectables cause infertility.”  Aashif is passionate about challenging these untruths about FP and ensuring that everyone, regardless of their background, has access to essential basic healthcare services.

Since June 2023, Aashif Medical Hall has been engaged with MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery in Nepal. This pharmacy is among the 866 private healthcare sites partnering with the project to provide high quality person-centered FP services, especially for young people. The project works with private healthcare sites to strengthen their capacity to provide high quality FP services and improve their business acumen.  Aashif, along with more than one thousand private providers, received various MOMENTUM-supported trainings on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), business skills, and clinical training in the provision of contraceptive methods such as injectables.

Aashif says that what he values most from his engagement with the project are the ideas on how to enhance the quality of his services while also changing misconceptions prevalent in the community.  The technical trainings and regular coaching and mentoring visits have helped Aashif understand the essentials needed to ensure quality services are provided by his pharmacy.

Before the partnership with MOMENTUM, Aashif did not have a separate room for FP counseling. Aashif would give clients their requested contraception methods over the counter and just briefly mention the side effects of any given method.

After participating in the MOMENTUM-supported ASRH training from the Provincial Health Training Center, he realized how important it is to keep clients’ information confidential, even more so for people in his community who face stigma for adopting FP methods. Now Aashif’s pharmacy has a separate counseling room where he can talk to clients, especially young people, about FP and reproductive health (RH) in a confidential space. With coaching and mentoring from the MOMENTUM project, Aashif provides counseling on managing side effects and discusses the possibility of switching methods that may be more suitable to a client’s needs. He pays special attention to busting myths by using the technical knowledge he has gained. He also feels that by providing confidentiality, privacy, and comprehensive counseling, he has helped improve his clients’ knowledge of FP and his relationship with them. He even started getting new clients referred by existing clients who appreciated his services and his efforts in providing detailed counseling.

Aashif is also leveraging the business skills he gained to reach young people in the community with accurate FP/RH information. Aashif Medical Hall is located near a mosque where lots of young people gather on Fridays for their prayers. In that area, there’s free Wi-Fi, so many young people use social media on their smartphones. “I intend to use social media to bust myths about family planning, raise awareness on sexual and reproductive health rights, and inform the community about the services I offer,” Aashif shares.

In the last six months (October 2023 to March 2024), Aashif had 1,076 clients visits for short acting reversible contraceptives of which 33 percent were adolescent clients (15—19 years), and 42 percent were young clients (20—29 years).

Today, Aashif Medical Hall is not just a place to buy medicines; it is a safe place where young people, especially from his own community, find privacy and understanding. Through his work, Aashif is bridging gaps, breaking barriers, and working to ensure that every individual receives the sexual and reproductive health care they deserve.