Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health Education 2016 women where some nurses and health workers who confirmed their pregnancy in the health center have called and informed the patient’s friends and neighbors before the patient could reach home from the appointment. Participants also claim that the local nurses in the islands are well known to gossip and share personal information of patients with their friends and such information, especially in small communities like the islands, does not take long to spread and the participants claimed that they have often faced ridicule due to this. One participant noted: “My sister went to the health center to get her pregnancy test results, she checked it for herself and rushed home to tell her husband and family, first. When she came home, half the neighborhood was at her door talking about it.”52 In addition, majority of the participants voiced their unhappiness about the lack of availability of prescription medication in the islands. They expressed that although islands usually have at least one pharmacy for basic medications, these pharmacies were usually privately owned businesses and hence the price of medication was often much higher when compared to that in Male’. Many also stated that medicines were usually out of stock and participants complained that the pharmacies often remained closed. Due to this, participants noted that they were often forced to bring the medicines from Male’ with the help of friends or family members. Some of the participants also stated that they were in the habit of bringing medicines from abroad and that they usually kept a stock of the basic medicines such as cough syrup and painkillers at home. A participant stated; “We can never get some of the medicines we really need from Aasandha such as the diabetic or blood pressure medicines. They are the most needed and they are sold very expensive.”53 52 53 Youth FGDs Parent FGDs 73 THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Выберите целевой абзац3