N’Dakro’s school for husbands was launched in August 2013. The 10 model husbands hold meetings every other Monday morning in a hut made from branches and wooden planks, with black plastic draped over the roof. During these meetings, they decide on an issue that needs to be addressed and then go out in pairs to speak with the other men in their village.

These 10 men were selected based on their character and leadership abilities and because they recognized the need for health services for their wives and children. When the school was founded, they went through a three-day training on reproductive and maternal health, gender equality, female genital mutilation and other issues that adversely affect women and girls.

Even though these model husbands were chosen in part because they were more progressive than other men in the village, they still did not immediately accept everything they were told during the training.

“They had a vague idea that things should be different,” says Mathies Yao, the schools for husbands coordinator in Toumodi, the closest town to N’Dakro, “but it’s hard because we’re reversing their culture. To say to a man you have to help your wife with household activities, you can’t beat your wife — it was hard for some of the men to understand. At the beginning they were very skeptical; they thought it was a violation of their rights.”

At the end of the training, Yao showed a picture of his family to the class and explained that he and his wife had used contraceptives in order to space out the births of their three children, who were born three years apart.

“Initially, I did not want my wife to take birth-control pills, even though they told us that it would help the wife to rest and recover before having another child,” Koffi said. “But when I saw Yao’s wife and she was beautiful and healthy, I was convinced!”

One of the main issues regarding women’s health in N’Dakro is the use of contraceptives. Many men in the village struggle to provide for all their children. The families in N’Dakro farm cocoa and coffee. In a good year, the men said, they earn as much as $2,100; in a bad year, it’s about $840. They estimate that between school fees, uniforms and medical treatment, it can cost as much as $200 per year to take care of each child.

The chief of N’Dakro, Julien N’Goran, was 29 when he married his first wife, who was 15, in 1991, and 35 when he married his second wife, who was 13. He has 10 children — four with his first wife, six with his second.

“We did not know about contraceptives, and the children came one after another,” said N’Goran. “In the beginning, it was fine, but now it’s getting tough.”

N’Goran learned the importance of contraceptive use from the model husbands and now gives his second wife about $2 every three months so she can go to the clinic to get injectable contraceptives. (He and his first wife are now divorced.)

He also has mandated that women in the village go to the hospital to have their babies.

“Before the school for husbands, women were having their children at home and dying in childbirth,” said N’Goran. “After, I told the women of the village not to have their babies at home, and I told the traditional midwives — my mother was one — not to do that anymore.”

Though the nearest hospital, in Bonikro, is only four miles away, it takes two or three hours to get there on motorcycle because the roads are bad. While some women have made that journey while in labor, on the back of a motorcycle, the model husbands decided it would be better to find a way for women to stay in Bonikro when they’re close to their due dates, so that they can be sure to get to hospital in time.

Similarly, in the village of Oussou, there is no easy way to get to the hospital. So the local model husbands gathered a list of the phone numbers of people with cars, whom they called when a woman went into labor. The model husbands each pitched in to pay the drivers, and other villagers contributed as well. The men then saved money so that they were recently able to buy a used car, which they use as an ambulance.