I am a community activist and I was trained by ICRH-M.
I’m doing mobilisation work, raising awareness about safe abortion. It’s important for the community to have information, rather than having unsafe abortions. Some women would insert various types of metals and take medicinal plants to end pregnancies. And later, when that person got married, she might find she had fertility problems and would not be able to conceive.
I’m making the most of every moment when I go into the field.
I wanted to get involved because I’ve seen the damage that is caused by unsafe abortion. It was something that hurt my heart because many families were losing loved ones. People, for lack of information, did what they thought was best, but lives were lost.
At first, talking about abortion caused a stir. People associated it with things like witchcraft. But as we carried out trainings, people began to realise that we wanted to help remove these taboos. We wanted to help people get informed and for them to know that it is possible to have a safe abortion.
We do what we can to save lives.
When I started volunteering, I was giving speeches to the congregation in churches. I am also a Christian. I know that in the churches there was this taboo, this idea that no religious person should have an abortion.
But we had a lot of girls in the congregation who were having unsafe abortions, even though they are religious. It was a way to broach the conversation – the religion itself says that the greatest value is life – how can we save lives rather than let people die.
When there are 50 people, not all of them are going to agree with you. But the number of supportive pastors is growing, there are even those who invite me, who say “this Sunday, when you’re free, give that talk of yours to my congregation”. This gives me strength. I can see that the pastors, even if they didn’t listen to me, didn’t despise me. So now I’ve realised that it’s important, because we’re saving lives.
Interview with Lávio who is a community activist with SAAF grantee partner ICRH-M.