STAFF BLOG: A night for Mothers.

 

I had been asked to speak about the facts, causes and reasons around maternal mortality and the SRHR issues of teenagers in Sub-Saharan Africa.  To prepare myself for the presentation, I reviewed old WGNRR files and I came across the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Campaign that WGNRR carried out from 1988 to 1998. Knowing the recent facts and statistics and despite all international commitments like ICPD PoA, Beijing and MDG5, it  was upsetting to read that nothing had really changed in the world with relation to the maternal mortality rates since those years. 

 

Still, every minute one woman dies; and still it is the women in Sub-Saharan African who have the biggest risk of losing their lives during pregnancy or childbirth.  It really makes you wonder what political commitments are all about and if they are only empty words? Don’t the (predominantly male) policy makers also have mothers who gave birth to them? Are they mothers themselves? Don’t they have sisters (in law), and nieces who become pregnant? Don’t they ‘hear’ the hard figures? Why can’t they prioritise this issue above some of the others? And why is the life of a woman not such a priority in the political agenda? 

 

Luckily, there are people like the staff and volunteers of Semos Planavimo Ir Seksulines Sveikatos Asociacijain that do care and are motivated  to advocate for SRHR worldwide despite the negative responses their advocacy and awareness activities  often receive.

 

“We already have enough problems on our own, why should we focus on other countries’ problems.”

 

 This is not an uncommon response in Europe where more and more right-wing (political) groups arise, and unfortunately also are elected and even end up in parliament.  This is a trend that also endangers the abortion status in many (EU) countries. 

 

During my visit, we discussed what is happening in Hungary where abortion could become illegal as a result of Hungary's proposed constitution- they want to include a provision that would protect human life from the moment of conception. In addition, Russia is also considering restricting abortion access to only up to 8 weeks. It seems to be happening everywhere!

 

Some weeks ago I was in Brussels for a meeting and noticed that there was an anti-abortion march that had been organised. That same weekend, anti-abortion marches took place in Spain and in Romania.  In the Netherlands, the Minister of Health (thankfully) has just announced the decision not to change the term (of 24 weeks) of abortion access despite the (Christian-right wing) anti-abortion pressure. However, it all demonstrates how organised the anti-abortion movement is and that they are taking great advantage of the changed political climate in their countries.  My impression up to now is that we –the SRHR movement- are mostly only reacting when the anti-abortion movement is organising something instead of being pro-active to already ‘win’ people for our stand point. 

 

Luckily, in Lithuania, there are (young and motivated) people that are concerned about these developments and are involved in SRHR advocacy. They also want to ensure that their government will keep their promises regarding financial assistance towards developing countries (MDG 8); despite the negative responses and the changed political climate. On the 27th of April, the youth department of Semos Planavimo Ir Seksulines Sveikatos Asociacijain organised a march in the capital Vilnius to make the public aware of the poor SRHR situation of (pregnant) teenagers in Sub-Saharan Africa. They were all very visible with yellow t-shirts and great demonstration boards. In addition, they had developed informative leaflets which they handed out. On top of this, they handed over a call and recommendation letter to the local government in which they demanded that the government is accountable for its commitments that they have made.

 

After the march, the Mother’s night started. The participants also attended an excursion in the Lithuanian Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema where the event took place, the moderators were Jonas Korenka together with the famous Lithuanian actress Larisa Kalpokaite, who opened the evening. Larisa Kalpokaite mentioned in her opening that when she was asked to become the ambassador, she felt she could not refuse to accept the invitation because she is a mother and she had experienced herself the problems and complications round being pregnant and child birth. After her introduction, I held my presentation and then Agne Gelzinyte, the youth ambassador for African Teenage Girls, informed the audience about her experiences when she was in Kenya and met many teenage girls. The documentary ‘Too Young to be a Mother’ summarised all what was said before and together with the images; must have given a face to the statistics and information that was presented.

 

The evening ended with beautiful songs performed by Larisa Kalpokaite. Altogether, it was an inspiring day that hopefully enlarged the group of people in Lithuania that committed themselves to SRHR issues and particularly to reduce maternal mortality so as in the future, with any luck, women in Africa, when about to give birth, don’t have to bid their older children farewell…