Youth in Bukom sensitised on dangers of unsafe abortion

Over 100 youth living in Israel, a fishing community located within Bukom, a suburb of Accra, has been vigorously sensitised on the dangers of illegal abortion under a project dubbed ‘Abortion 360’.

They were also advised to always adopt the practice of comprehensive abortion care (CAC) to stay out of danger.

The youth, usually made up of teenagers, were schooled at a durbar organised by three NGOs spearheading the ‘Abortion 360’ campaign on dangers of unsafe abortion and the need to embrace the comprehensive abortion care for their own safety.

The method used to drum home the message was a popular theatre (drama) which sheds more light on the illegal abortion practice.

Though a short drama portraying a mixture of pain and pleasure, the storyline was interesting and educative, highlighting the problems and offering solutions on safe abortion practices which impacted every participant greatly.

The ‘Abortion 360’ project, an initiative of Community and Family Aids Foundation (CAFAF), Indroads and IPas Global, seeks to unearth, educate and share documents as well as develop tools on the stark realities on the grounds regarding the issues of illegal abortion.

Under the project, research will be effectively conducted after which views will be collected and shared on various platforms including online and social media platforms, blogs, newsletters among others in order to galvanise more support to intensify more public outreaches to reduce abortion stigma.

It is hoped that the ‘Abortion 360’ project will help raise community volunteer champion campaigners who will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be translated into action, through which such efforts will help explore experiences and express the issues in its purest form to gain the necessary attention and reactions with the view of building alliances to influence change at all levels.

Abortion is the premature ending of pregnancy. The act is really happening in every part of the world especially among the youth. The mere mention of its name sends shivers down people’s spines, Some pretend not to listen to it, yet it takes place every second at different locations in varied forms for which reason illegal or traditional medium of terminating pregnancy with its associated problems is a major source of worry and dominates mass media headlines.

Ghana as a country with a population of young hopefuls and sexually active population continue to record heartbreaking regional illegal abortion-related cases that have really become a threat to many health facilities and policy makers.

Abortion issues continue to emanate from the local community such as unwanted pregnancies leading to illegal abortion practice which is daily reported by communities, informants, the police and health centres in the country.

According to the Programmes Director of Community and Family Aids Foundation, Joseph Senyo Kwashie, abortion is already in the communities and the only way to let people know the right means they can settle for abortion is through sensitization campaigns.

He said that was the rationale behind the implementation of the ‘Abortion 360’ project with the aim of not only educating people but also uncover, learn and share the secrets behind why people often resort to terminating pregnancies through the illegal means.

In an interview, the CAFAF boss disclosed the reason why they’ve chosen Israel Community in Bukom as an area of focus for the sensitization drama was due to a fact that the area is prone to illegal abortion activities and so “this program is just to create awareness, educate the people and then solicit information from them as to the prevailing situation and how to handle them”.

“It is to give them the right information to get them informed to make fruitful choices by linking them to proper facilities or to school them well on the best way to undertake abortion which is through the Comprehensive Abortion Care,” Joseph Kwashie added.

Joseph Senyo Kwashie, who also doubles as the founder of CAFAF, believes every woman, according to the constitution of Ghana, has a right to Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) but unfortunately laments about the low response to service delivery under the subject matter contributing to the loss of many women’s lives.

This has been due to unsafe abortion service delivery emanating from patronising the services of quack doctors including untrusted sources.

Meanwhile, the ‘Abortion 360’ project management has stated categorically in writing that, “our attempt is not to promote abortion and influence people to succumb to it but rather engage in information sharing to learn from the prevailing situations on the ground”.

This according to them will offer a special platform to heal wounds of hearing, interacting and informing people about their rights to safe and comprehensive abortion care guaranteed under the constitution of Republic of Ghana.