Uganda – Sexuality education: Is it a game changer?

Wednesday, September 07, 2022
Mariana Kayaga

During the national consultations by the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) on the East African Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill (EAC SRH Bill), a section of clerics argued that sexuality education sexualises children and that “children have no business engaging in sex”.

They further argued that sexuality education for children should be left to the parents. Discussions on sexuality education have always been a polarising debate and this is partly fueled by misconceptions and misinformation. For a long time, there has been the misconception that sexuality education and sex education are the same thing. However, sexuality education is a curriculum-based means of teaching and learning about cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality.

Continued: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/commentary/sexuality-education-is-it-a-game-changer--3939374

07.09.2022

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East African Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill

Renewed hope for sexual and reproductive health and rights in East Africa

Time is up for policy makers to stop putting the health and lives of women and girls at risk based on implicit biases and subjective opinions

by ESTHER AOKO, Star Blogs
24 June 2022

As sexual and reproductive health and rights continue to be sidelined the world over, detrimental health outcomes like alarming rates of teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions continue to be reported in Kenya.

The Ministry of Health recently reported over 45,700 cases of teenage pregnancies in January and February of this year alone. Additionally, over 26,000 women and girls in Kenya die every year from unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/opinion/star-blogs/2022-06-24-renewed-hope-for-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-in-east-africa/

24.06.2022

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Esther Aoko

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Standing strong: youth health workers from Benin share lessons from sexual and reproductive health and rights workshop

28 April 2022
FIGO Advocating for Safe Abortion Project

From 9–11 March 2022, in Cotonou, Benin, FIGO’s Advocating for Safe Abortion Project worked with the National College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Benin (CNGOB) to organise a capacity building workshop for their counterparts visiting from Mali alongside the Youth Health Workers for Safe Abortion (YHW4SA) – a Beninese network of young pro-choice health professionals set-up in 2021 by CNGOB.

The group attending the workshop was made up of 15 members of the YHW4SA network and five members of the Malian Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (SOMAGO).

The aim was to share knowledge and tools on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and on best practice to discuss abortion, in order to enable participants to address abortion stigma and strengthen access to safe abortion in their workplaces and wider communities.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/youth-health-workers-benin-share-lessons-srhr-workshop

Nigeria – Comprehensive Sexuality Education Coming to 1,700 Girls Courtesy of Onelife, IPAS

19.04.2022

Onelife Initiative, a non-profit organisation with offices in Oyo, Ekiti and Akwa Ibom, has partnered with Ipas Nigeria to offer comprehensive sexuality education to close to 2,000 females across four local government areas in Oyo State, Nigeria.

According to a statement issued by the organisation, the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Information (SRHR)-themed training will also include information dissemination on the risks attached to unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://fij.ng/article/comprehensive-sexuality-education-coming-to-1700-girls-courtesy-of-onelife-ipas/

Ecuador: Criminalizing Abortion Affects Rights, Health

Greatest Harm for Indigenous, Afro-Descendent People Living in Poverty

July 14, 2021
Human Rights Watch

(Washington, D.C.) – Ecuador’s laws
criminalizing abortion violate the rights and risk the lives and health of
women and girls, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 128-page report, “‘Why Do They Want to Make Me Suffer Again?’ The Impact of
Abortion Prosecutions in Ecuador” documents how these laws are having
widespread harmful consequences in Ecuador, costing lives through increased
maternal mortality and morbidity, cutting women and girls off from essential
services, and undermining broader efforts to promote sexual and reproductive
health. Women and girls charged with abortion often experience violations of
their rights to medical confidentiality and due process, and face significant
obstacles to accessing quality legal representation. The prosecutions affect
not only women who wish to end an unwanted pregnancy but also those who
experience miscarriages or obstetric emergencies, or urgently require
post-abortion care.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/14/ecuador-criminalizing-abortion-affects-rights-health

Tricked and uninformed: why so many young girls in Kenya are getting pregnant

May 30, 2021
Anthony Idowu Ajayi

The rate of early unintended pregnancy in Kenya is shockingly high. About one in five girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have begun having children. It’s worse in some areas than others. For instance, the rate is as high as two in five in Narok and Homa Bay counties. Most of these pregnancies are unplanned and unintended.

Getting pregnant at such a young age can harm a girl’s health and socioeconomic wellbeing.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/tricked-and-uninformed-why-so-many-young-girls-in-kenya-are-getting-pregnant-161098

Kenya – Comprehensive Sexuality Education Is Vital To All!

MAY 26, 2021
By Alvin Mwangi, Ghetto Radio

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a lot of adolescents and young people remain and stay in homes. It is saddening that everyday we hear of injustices that adolescents and young people in all our diversities are going through in Kenya.

Access and enjoyment to the highest standard of health care is important to all adolescents and young people including the “left behind”, LGBTQ+, persons with disabilities, persons who inject drugs, young people from marginalized areas.

Continued: https://ghettoradio.co.ke/comprehensive-sexuality-education-is-vital-to-all/

26.05.2021

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Submission by Human Rights Watch to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy

October 19, 2020

1. This submission concerns the privacy rights of children and issues relating to their independence and autonomy. It focuses on the importance of privacy for children with respect to their sexual and reproductive health and rights, physical and emotional well-being in school, safety in the online space, and the protection of their information online.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
2. States’ obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights include areas of sexual and reproductive health and autonomy. Where access to safe and legal abortion services are unreasonably restricted, a number of human rights may be at risk, including the right to privacy.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/19/submission-human-rights-watch-un-special-rapporteur-right-privacy

19.10.2020

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Global

Abortion, sexuality, global health and more: A chat with South Africa’s ‘Dr T’

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 | NEWS

If you haven’t heard of Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng—known popularly as Dr T—you have somehow missed her ubiquitous presence on radio, TV, social media and numerous other platforms. She’s a medical doctor, sex expert and health activist. She’s a member of the South Africa Commission on Gender Equality and was recently appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. Dr. Mofokeng is also the author of A Guide to Sexual Health and Pleasure. She took time from her busy schedule to field some questions from Ipas.

Congratulations on your recent appointment as a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health—and for being the first woman from Africa named to that post. What excites you most about this new role?

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/abortion-sexuality-global-health-and-more-a-chat-with-south-africas-dr-t/

Kenya – Unsafe abortion: The problem nobody wants to talk about

Unsafe abortion: The problem nobody wants to
talk about

By MERCY KAHENDA AND SAADA HASSAN
August 31st 2020

The images still sneak up to her when she least expects. They come unannounced,
and they torture her. Eve never imagined that the process of trying to get rid
of an unplanned baby could leave her with physical and emotional scars that
have refused to go away.

When she speaks of abortion, she whispers. The shame she feels lingers in every
word she utters.

“I get bad dreams and I am haunted by the
act,” she says.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/the-standard-insider/article/2001384569/unsafe-abortion-the-problem-nobody-wants-to-talk-about