Stories

Geneviève Head of Youth and Stigma project and fundraising at the Association Beninoise pour la promotion de la famille (ABPF) Since joining ABPF in 1995, Geneviève has worked closely with community leaders to reduce stigma around abortion. Talking about the importance of young women having choice and access to abortion care, Geneviève says, “the law only applies in three circumstances, meanwhile everyday people need to access these services. Reproductive rights do exist, but that is something many people choose to ignore.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Hélène ABPF youth champion with the Young People’s Action Movement  27-year-old Hélène acts as a link between young people’s activities and the ABPF board. She has advocated for abortion rights at conferences locally and internationally.  “In my school there were a fair number of pregnant girls so I was already looking for a way to help. Every week I went to different classes to educate them about abortion and stigma. When my mother found out, she told me this was a movement of depravity! But after a while my mum became a member of the association and came with me, and even my dad. Now they say they are proud of what I’ve achieved.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Simon Gnansounou Community leader In the small town of Cocotomey-La Paix, Simon works closely with ABPF supporting their work to reduce abortion stigma within local communities. “It’s a project for social development, and I am all for that. It’s going to limit harm done to these girls. Parents don’t talk about this with their children. It’s taboo. This project helps us negotiate this difficult parent-child question. There is no development without health, and the politics of health are very complex.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Kader Youth champion 26-year-old Kader says his first youth meeting at ABPF was a positive experience. “They told me that there was a jam session at the event. What I liked is that it was run by young people. Everything that I know about reproductive health I learnt at the centre. A lot of young women I know got pregnant very early. I know people who have died because of unsafe abortion. We can avoid so much of it if people have the right information.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Souliya Mevo Tairou Midwife “Stigmatization complicates our work. Fourteen and 15-year olds come here without their parents and it’s hard to work with them. The girls are so scared that they can’t really explain what’s happening to them. They come here after going to the traditional healers when that hasn’t worked and they are bleeding or have an infection. Here, with the Youth and Abortion Stigma Project, we have awareness sessions. The young people and those supervising give out their numbers and tell them to call if they have a problem.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Amour University student “Her friends told her to take laxatives and other products, to put things in her vagina, to wash with hot water, to move about a lot.” 21-year-old Amour talks about a friend who confided in him when she discovered she was pregnant. “When we talk about abortion in Benin, it’s something people don’t want to hear about. It’s not well seen. Talking about sex is a problem. It’s still taboo. Thanks to the Youth and Abortion Stigma Project, I had benefited from training on how to talk to girls if they came to ask about abortion.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Flore Literature teacher Flore says some of her students go to her for support and advice: “They are quite shy because at home the subject of sex is always taboo. They are reticent; they think it’s a shame. We will only correct this problem over time. There is chatting and whispering in class ‘you know what she did?’ Can’t we support these children instead of stigmatizing them?” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email Ida University student 19-year-old Ida attended a workshop on abortion and stigma for teachers and students at the Fiyegnon collège d’enseignement général. “It really helped. If we take our own decisions we will make it to the end, we will get what is right for us.” Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share via WhatsApp Share via Email

At a local bar, we meet nine women from Kirundo. They’re all sex workers who became friends through Association Burundaise pour le Bien-Etre Familial's (ABUBEF) peer educator project. Yvonne is 40 and has known that she’s HIV-positive for 22 years. After her diagnosis she was isolated from her friends and stigmatized both in public and at home, where she was even given separate plates to eat from. “I started to get drunk every day,” she says. “I hoped death would take me in my sleep. I didn’t believe in tomorrow. I was lost and lonely. Until I got to the ABUBEF clinic.” ABUBEF has supported her treatment for the past six years. “I take my pill every day and I am living example of having a good life even with a previous death sentence,” Yvonne explains. “But I see that the awareness of HIV, protection and testing provided by ABUBEF is still very small.” Yvonne became a peer educator, speaking in public about HIV awareness, wearing an ABUBEF T-shirt.  The project spread to the wider region, and volunteers were given travel expenses, materials and training, along with condoms for distribution. But funding cuts mean those expenses are no longer available. Yvonne says she’ll carry on in Kirundo even if she can’t travel more widely like she used to. Her friend, 29-year-old Perusi, shares her experience of ABUBEF as a safe space where her privacy will be respected. It often happens, she says, that her clients rape her, and run away, failing to pay. Since sex work is illegal, she says, and there’s no protection from the authorities, and sex workers like her often feel rejected by society.  But at ABUBEF’s clinics, they are welcomed.

Monica has never told anyone about the attack. She was pregnant at the time, already had two teenage sons, and rape is a taboo subject in her community in Burundi. Knowing that her attacker was HIV-positive, and fearing that her husband would accuse her of provocation - or worse still, leave her - she turned to a place she knew would help.   ABUBEF is the Association Burundaise Pour Le Bien-Etre Familial. Their clinic in Kirundo offered Monica HIV counselling and treatment for the duration of her pregnancy.  Above all, ABUBEF offered privacy.  Neither Monica nor her daughter has tested positive for HIV. “They saved the life of me and my child,” Monica says. “I hope they get an award for their psychological and health support for women.” Three years on from the attack, Monica, now 45, raises her children and tends the family farm where she grows beans, cassava, potatoes and rice. She’s proud of her eldest son who’s due to start university this year. She educates her boys against violence, and spreads the word about ABUBEF. Monica speaks to other women to make sure they know where to seek help if they need it. Her attacker still lives in the neighbourhood, and she worries that he’s transmitting HIV. But the ABUBEF clinic that helped Monica is under threat from funding cuts. The possibility that it could close prompted her to tell her story.    “This is a disaster for our community,” she says. “I know how much the clinic needs support from donors, how much they need new equipment and money for new staff. I want people to know that this facility is one of a kind - and without it many people will be lost.”

On Friday afternoon in Municipal Lycee of Nyakabiga, Burundi,  headmistress Chantal Keza is introducing her students to the medical staff from Association Burundaise pour le Bien-Etre Familial (ABUBEF). Peer educators at the school, trained by ABUBEF,  will perform a short drama based around sexual health and will answer questions about contraception methods from students. One of the actresses is peer educator Ammande Berlyne Dushime. Ammande, who is 17 years old is one of three peer educators at the school. Ammande, together with her friends, perform their short drama on the stage based on a young girls quest for information on contraception. It ends on a positive note, with the girl receiving useful and correct information from a peer educator at her school. A story that could be a very real life scenario at her school. Peer programmes that trained Ammande, are under threat of closure due to the Global Gag rule.   Ammande says, “I am afraid what will happen when there will be no more projects like this one. I am ready to go on with work as peer educator, but if there are not going to be regular visits by the medical stuff from the clinic, then we will have no one to seek information and advice from. I am just a teenager, I know so little. Not only I will lose my support, but also I will not be taken serious by my schoolmates. With such important topic like sexual education and contraception, I am not the authority. I can only show the right way to go. And this road leads to ABUBEF.” She says “As peer educator I am responsible for Saturday morning meetings at the clinic. We sing songs, play games, have fun and learn new things about sex education, contraception, HIV protection and others. Visiting the clinic is then very easy, and no student has to be afraid, that showing up at the clinic that treats HIV positive people, will ruin their reputation. Now they know that we can meet there openly, and undercover of these meetings seek for help, information, professional advice and contraception methods” Peer educator classes are a safe and open place for students to openly talk about their sexual health. The Global Gage Rule will force peer educator programmes like this to close due to lack of funding.   Help us bridge the funding gap   Learn more about the Global Gag Rule