Report of September 28th: We observed positive progress about Abortion in Goma DRC
Report on the Conversation about Abortion in Goma in commemorating the International Day of Safe-Abortion
Our discussions about Abortion here in Goma received a seed-funding from Abortion Conversation Project (ACP) during this year 2024.
The Head of North Kivu Province Health Division applauds efforts to decriminalize abortion
The Head of Health Division in North Kivu during the Conference of Saturday in Goma
According to some media reports in Goma, during a conference organized by a Civil Society Organization in commemoration of the International Day of Safe Abortion on Saturday September 28th, 2024, the head of the Health Division in North Kivu encouraged the work being done by the Civil Society Organizations to decriminalize abortion and pledged his support.
This came after four discussion forums we organized here in Goma, in which the health Division was always represented and engaged with the audience in our debates and also our three press conferences about abortion. We believe that this change of view from the top Government Officer in charge of health in the Province may be related to this advocacy we made and the information they received from our discussions.
Bringing conversation about abortion to the public
On Saturday September 28th, 2024 we joined the rest of the globe to reflect on the situation in Goma about safe abortion. The debate is not about Abortion because it is always performed and has claimed the lives of so many women here in Goma, the debate is about how to access safe-abortion in Goma in order to reduce the deaths of women, and this is where the big problem lies.
Amplifying the conversation among young people
Our campaigns have received a seed funding from the Abortion Conversation Projects (ACP) which enabled us to conduct a survey in order to come up with clear information which we are now basing on. Since January 2024 when we started this project we have observed the reduction of deaths of women and young girls due to unsafe abortion, we have also observed the reduction of dumping fetus on roadside and also the reduction of abuses against young girls accused of removing pregnancy, and lastly family problems about young girls being impregnated by men or boys have reduced in Goma. We think that these efforts should be capitalized and amplified so that we may not return back from where we were, as organization we are so proud for these progresses and so grateful to our donor Abortion Conversation Projects for the support.
We believe this can be attributed to the series of activities we have conducted in line with discussions around abortion issues, the media engagement about abortion and the interactions with local leaders.
However despite the progress there is still a lot to be done, as we were alerted about some cases of young girls who died while attempting to their terminate pregnancies, we also received cases of conflicts among families about a boy impregnating a girl and that is a serious problem.
Approach
Our approach has been first of all access to information and knowledge about safe abortion because people at all levels have no clear information, this aims at reducing the stigma and all other forms of stereotypes, and at the same time to mitigate the existing cultural and religious beliefs, in order to save lives of women.
Legality remains a challenge
The Democratic Republic of Congo does not have a particular law focusing on issues of abortion, however the Penal Code criminalizes abortion, and this is also in contradiction with Maputo Declaration which expands the space for abortion. Religious Leaders strongly preach and they are too vocal that abortion is sin and a murder, the cultural leaders also claim abortion is against the African Culture and it a white practice, all these criminalize abortion and highly stigmatize women who have performed it. However there have not been a clear debate on this over the years.
Activities in line with September 28th in Goma
The Flyer which was used in order to provoke the Debate among people in Goma North Kivu
Targeted Audience: Young people in various social media mainly WhatsAPP and Facebook,
Activity: Campaign to create conversation on abortion
Material: Flyer and Post
Message: Commemorating International Day of Safe-Abortion, the freedom of women to decide about her body, and access to accurate information to women.
Strategies: Post targeted our audience on:
Facebook: Our five staff posted this flyer on their Facebooks and attracted 139 comments,
WhatsApp status: We all posted the flyer on our status and we received 71 reactions out of 701 persons who viewed our status.
We also posted it in WhatsApp Groups: A total of 102 Groups received our flyer, which created debates in various groups, however were only able to engage people in 17 groups for a whole day.
Lastly we have a public debate on Saturday and people still engaged and really discussed on issues around abortion.
Again the conversation rotated around: God, African Culture and the Penal Code, however we had also some reactions especially from some students at universities who argued about Maputo Declaration and shared more ideas with others either in social media or in our meeting.
The meeting brought together students from three Universities, leaders of various youth groups and members of youth associations who engaged on abortion. The session was facilitated by our representatives who not only shared accurate information about abortion in our villages throughout our history and how it is called in our own languages and the consequences to women who were involved in abortion in terms of punishment, this was in line of rubbishing the argument that abortion is a white agenda in order to reduce Africans, however more research work in needed in this field.
We also shared information about clear cases of women who have died while trying to terminate pregnancy through unsafe methods, more research work is also still needed in this in order to provide enough evidence, we also shared clear information and witnesses of those who have lost their family members due to pregnancy especially in a situation when even the Medical Personnel has told the woman that her pregnancy is risky and should be terminated, those women died because their husbands refused the termination of the pregnancy calling it a sin, and instead opted for Miracles through Prayers which did not help.
In conclusion
We are so much proud to see that we have started this debate and now other actors are getting involved, another organization here in Goma also organized an activity on this day, and now we are getting the positive positions from Government leaders. We observe the reduction of cases related to unsafe abortion this year, we believe it may connected to our various campaigns.
These activities should be amplified with more debates and discussions at each level and with various audiences in their diversity, in the same way research work should also be supported in order to provide enough evidence.
It is therefore a prayer that donors consider to fund us so that we can reduce this problem in Goma and create an environment where women are fully safe.
