NAIROBI, Could 07 (IPS) – Only a month in the past, I discovered myself in a hospital, anxiously ready for my son to be attended to. As we sat quietly in one of many ready rooms, an emergency case was wheeled in — a younger girl, barely out of her teenagers. Her face contorted in seen ache. Her gown was soaked with blood, which had begun to pool beneath the wheelchair and trickle onto the ground.
I couldn’t assist however overhear the nurse asking the lady who had accompanied her, “What occurred?” “She simply began her durations,” the good friend whispered, her voice laced with worry and confusion.
However from my very own expertise, I knew durations don’t arrive like this. The heavy bleeding, the intense ache, the sheer urgency: one thing was terribly fallacious. In a rustic the place abortion is criminalized and conversations on reproductive well being are sometimes shrouded in silence, there are stuff you don’t say out loud, not even in a hospital.
Later, I realized the younger girl had been referred to a higher-level facility as a result of the hospital couldn’t deal with her case. I left that day with a prayer on my lips, hoping she lived to inform her story.
So why am I sharing this? As a result of final week, I sat in one other room, distant from that hospital, attending the 58th Session of the Fee on Inhabitants and Growth (CPD58) on the United Nations.
This was my first time attending the annual convention. The conversations had been a sobering reminder of how precarious sexual and reproductive well being and rights (SRHR) stay, particularly for younger girls just like the one I noticed that day.
Regardless of the gravity of the worldwide challenges, CPD58 felt like a extra formal than interactive house. At lots of the aspect occasions I attended, audiences sat silent, not often given the prospect to ask questions.
Shows had been dominated by authorities departments and bureaucrats. I couldn’t assist however surprise — the place had been the voices of the individuals these insurance policies are supposed to serve? The place was the civil society that introduced these tales from their grassroots companions?
Breaking the silence
One of many few areas that broke this silence was a gathering organized by the Worldwide Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition (ISRRC), a coalition of organizations from all areas of the world devoted to advancing SRHR. It supplied a uncommon second of genuine change, the place the few CSO voices current may mirror on the battles we face each at house and on the worldwide stage.
However general, the opposition to SRHR remained cussed and vocal. I listened as some delegations pushed again towards phrases that ought to be non-negotiable: Complete Sexuality Training (CSE), protected abortion, gender equality.
These will not be simply phrases; they’re lifelines for younger girls, particularly these navigating complicated realities in nations like mine, Kenya.
Mockingly, many CPD58 conversations simply wished to concentrate on maternal well being, not on teenage pregnancies or younger moms. Principally, addressing maternal well being with out discussing the method that results in being pregnant (intercourse and sexuality) and subsequently CSE.
I couldn’t assist however assume: How will we discuss stopping HIV with out speaking about intercourse? How will we deal with teenage being pregnant with out talking overtly about reproductive well being? How can we ignore baby marriages after they stay a heartbreaking actuality throughout many nations? And what do we are saying to survivors of rape — younger or previous — who turn out to be pregnant? Ought to they be compelled to hold these pregnancies, whatever the trauma or the dangers?
As an advocate and a believer within the energy of high quality information to tell selections, these questions weigh closely on me. Are the insurance policies we design grounded in actual, lived experiences? Can we acquire and use information to mirror the brutal realities so many younger girls face day by day?
Combating anti-rights narratives
One clear takeaway from CPD58 was this: info and tales should go hand in hand. Information alone can inform, however tales can remodel. Each are important to combating anti-rights narratives and creating areas for conversations.
One other key take away is the essential want for civil society to take care of each its presence and momentum in these areas. The CPD stays one of many least attended UN conferences, and its negotiation course of is opaque.
The anti-rights motion’s rising clout dangers reversing many SRHR positive factors by simply passing resolutions with out push again. If civil society isn’t current and arranged, nobody would be the wiser. It’s important to occupy and safeguard this house.
We should prepare youth activists to counter opposition and problem anti-gender, anti-abortion, and anti-CSE rhetoric not simply with info, however with human tales.
Inform the tales that humanize the information; tales just like the one I witnessed in that hospital room. Digital areas maintain large potential to advance SRHR, particularly for marginalized communities.
But, with alternative comes threat. The identical platforms that may empower younger girls are breeding grounds for misinformation. Our efforts should embrace each creating digital options and equipping younger girls to navigate these areas safely and correctly.
I used to be inspired to see progressive voices from the European Union, Latin America, and components of Africa and Asia stand agency in defending SRHR inside the closing negotiated textual content. However the struggle doesn’t finish there.
From Nigeria to Mozambique, from Jordan to Guatemala — and each nook in between — we should guarantee younger girls in all their diversities will not be left behind. Their voices, rights, and decisions have to be revered.
Lastly, we should hold the strain on at house. Advocacy for insurance policies that shield and increase complete sexuality training, protected abortion (the place permitted), and youth-friendly SRH companies should not cease at worldwide commitments. We should maintain our governments accountable and guarantee these commitments translate into motion.
The younger girl in that hospital room deserved higher. So do numerous others like her.
And the one method ahead is by standing up, talking out, and refusing to let silence win.
Mary Kuira is International DMEL Coordinator at Hivos East Africa
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