World Vasectomy Day, November 20, is arguably the largest male-focused family planning movement in history. Nearly 1000 providers in 30+ countries join the Day every November, encouraging men to share responsibility for their family’s, and their own, sexual and reproductive health. There's a new generation who see that limiting family size improves their ability to provide their children a quality life, and increasingly aware too of the environmental benefits for the whole planet.
We live in torrid times, worsened by the pandemic. For far too many women these words, sung by Elvis Presley >50 years ago, are spot on: “ ’Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need, it’s another little hungry mouth to feed†. Moreover outside of ghettos/slums in every country there are even more women, ordinary women, who simply don't want to conceive more children: other forms of contraception are not available or for whatever reason they find them unsatisfactory; and their partners would have a vasectomy if it were an option.
The Elliot Smith Vasectomy Award is a cash prize and mentor-ship program offered to deserving partners in emerging countries; it includes materials, demand generation support and subsidizes the surgeons. In 2020 we have chosen CEMOPLAF in Quito, Ecuador, for their creativity and compassion for families as our deserving Award winner. In March 2020, 128 men chose to have a vasectomy through CEMOPLAF on, logically, International Women’s Day. The Award will help them establish an innovative mobile vasectomy program to reach outlying clinics.
At a time when so many of our values are under siege, a movement, grounded in kindness and compassion that celebrates and inspires positive masculinity, has never felt more urgent. We know these are tough times, but with £5000 we will be able to help subsidize the costs of 100 vasectomies and a matching fund will double that number to 200.
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