Launching the Survey on Abortion Stigma Reduction in Goma the Democratic Republic of Congo

Report of the progress of the survey of the meeting for the survey on reduction of abortion stigma in Goma the Democratic Republic of Congo

The meeting on Friday January 19th, 2024 to plan about the survey

With a seed fund from Abortion Conversation Projects, we have embarked on the collection of information about reduction of stigma on abortion in Goma the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Background information

The whole of last year we observed cases of women who lost their lives due to issues related pregnancy, women being arrested and detained because of attempting to perform abortion, and generally in Goma there are regular cases of people throwing babies either in pit latrine or in the durst-bean.

Goma is confronted to multiple problems, the town hosts more than 4millions Internally Displaced Persons, more than 50,000 refugees and it is a touristic city in DRCongo. There is pressure on various services and the shortage of humanitarian relief aid and the cost of life is extremely high as many people are sinking into poverty and destitution. For many women and young girls commercial sex is becoming an alternative in order to survive and to earn a living, and in most cases there is no information about issues around protection and safety.

The Abortion Stigma Reduction

This project seeks are helping the community to reduce the negative attitudes towards abortion and at the same time help the community members who have opted to perform abortion. Our first intervention is to collect information in the community so that we may have a clear picture of the problem and then work on available alternatives for solutions.

The Team

The team in the meeting,

On Monday a team of 8 people will be start the collection of information from communities among them 6 research assistants, 2 researchers and two supervisors who will do the work for a whole week.

The research will focus on key believed places where people are involved in sexual activities and will collect information from people of 12 years to 50 years, the local leaders, the security services, government officials, the media and medical practitioners. One Focus Group Discussion meeting will be organized and one press conference, specific areas have been already selected and clear justification of these areas have been made, and lastly the local authorities have been so far informed in a letter and the various meeting have been made with the team about the survey.