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[13 February 2007] - Officials in Rwanda plan to unveil a campaign promoting contraception and family planning to control the country's population growth and stabilize its economy. The country's population, which is made up of subsistence farmers, has quadrupled during the last 50 years. Rwanda has about 8.8 million people, and Rwandan women have an average of 6.1 children. If fertility rates are not slowed, the population will double by 2030. Rwandan officials "were reluctant to promote population control" after the 1994 genocide that took place during the country's civil war because they "feared it would offend the survivors, who believed they had a right to replenish what they had lost." President Paul Kagame in a recent interview said he will soon unveil a comprehensive population control programme that aims to cut Rwanda's birth rate by at least 50 per cent. According to officials who are designing the plan, it would include a requirement that everyone who visits a hospital or health centre for any reason be counselled on family planning. Women of child-bearing age would be offered free contraception, including Norplant II, and all schools would offer comprehensive sex education courses. Catholic Church leaders are not expected to oppose the plan. The Church has avoided politics because some priests, nuns and lay workers took part in the 1994 genocide, which weakened the Church's "moral authority." Further information