European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 6, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                N rat Tow g rid up o p u l a to o n triese 6us passengers in Nairobi Kenya symbolize the overcrowding and population growth endemic in portions of Africa. World problems multiply As population grows by Charles j. Hanley the associated press n misty Green african Highlands not far from where prehistoric Man got his Start modern Man May be getting a sneak preview of his end. Ragged and weary kenyan peasants swinging hoes and scattering seed Are trying to grow Corn along the shoulders of a Road on pitiful arms Width strips of Rocky Earth they Hope can feed their families. There s too Little Good land in Kenya. And too Many babies. Quot seven or eight Are usual and some women have been having 15 children Quot reports local nurse Ruth Wai Henya. Wai Henya has helped obtain the first regular supplies of contraceptives and family planning advice for the Mountain Hamlet of Nwogu Ini. Now the women talk about limiting their babies to three or four. Multiply Nwogu Ini by thousands of dirt poor villages and hundreds of Jam packed cities across the Globe and you have some sense of the grim a and accelerating a arithmetic facing delegates to this week s International conference on population and development in Cairo Egypt. A the numbers can be startling by doubling since the mid-1950s, human population has grown More in just the past two generations than in All of Man s previous years on Earth put together. A a a despite gains made by aggressive birth control programs in China and elsewhere world population now at 5.7 billion could explode to 12.5. Billion by the Middle of the next Century. A Africa s population the planet s fastest growing is projected to leap from 700 million to 1.1 billion in the next 16 years. Quot Basic resources. Are being depleted and environmental pollution is intensifying driven by the unprecedented growth in human numbers Quot the world s nations warn in the draft Quot program of action Quot readied for Cairo. The head of the . Population fund says the 1990s Are a crucial decade because huge numbers of females babies of the Fertile 70s and 80s, will be in their own childbearing years. Quot actions of today and consistent action Over the next 10 years can change the course and level at which populations can stabilize in the whole world Quot Nafis Sadik said in new York. Some specialists seeing what can be done in places like Kenya Are hopeful. Just a decade ago the country led the world in human Fertility. The average woman was bearing eight children. Then the National government with . And other Aid Money began a crash program. Health workers were trained in contraceptive methods. Trucks took to Kenya s roads carrying boxes of contraceptives to Distant clinics. Family planning agents went door to door. Today $2 million in . Aid is spent each year just on condoms for kenyans. Dramatic changes followed the proportion of married women using contraceptives a the Pill injections. Continued on Page 76 tuesday september 6,1994 the stars and stripes closer . Alters policy on population planning the Clinton administration has probably made no sharper a turn from Reagan Bush policy than in population and family planning. The earlier administrations policies were shaped by their anti abortion position. At a Mexico City conference on world population in 1984, in president Reagan a first presidential term the . Delegation declared that global population growth was Quot a Neutral phenomenon. Not necessarily Good or  Washington subsequently withdrew . Aid from the . Population fund criticizing that Agency a support for birth control programs in China where local officials were reported to be coercing women into sterilizations and abortions. The International planned parenthood federation also lost . Aid because of Reagan administration concerns that some of the federation s National affiliates facilitated abortions. President Clinton who supports abortion rights has reversed those policies restoring Aid to the International organizations and pushing for an activist Agenda at the upcoming population conference in Cairo Egypt. A your goal is to make these family planning programs available to every citizen in the world by Early in the next Century a Clinton said in a speech in june. Nafis Sadik the . Population fund executive director says the withdrawal of . Aid had hobbled family planning efforts internationally. A i think we really lost a decade a very valuable decade a she said. Quot we could have been much further ahead than we Are today especially in  drops at a Price by Many measures the worlds most populous nation is also the worlds biggest Success Story in family planning but few will follow its example. Since 1979, China has had a National policy limiting most couples to one child. Although the government maintains this is. Accomplished through education and persuasion persistent reports Over the years make Clear that Many women have been pressured or forced into abortions Aryl sterilizations. China s total Fertility rate a the number of children bom to the average woman a plunged from 6 in 1965 to 1.7 last year the chinese government says. But it continues to draw Sharp criticism from around the world including from . Headquarters in new York. Quot we have been very Strong in our discussions with the chinese government in trying to change this one child policy Quot said Nafi Sadik executive director of the . Population fund. Quot they must concentrate on Quality programs and Good information. The response from the Public has been very positive in China so they really done to need to resort to this kind of  a the associated press 15