Article: Sexual health and reproductive rights: IPAS ends a campaign to offer care to displaced women in Bulengo, DRC.
The NGO IPAS has closed its campaign to offer sexual and reproductive health, including safe abortion, to displaced women in the Bulengo camp, located in the Lac Vert district, Buhimba health area, west of the city of Goma. For a month, displaced women had access to care allowing them to prevent unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, sexual violence, as well as safe abortion options, in accordance with the prescriptions of the Maputo protocol. In addition to medical follow-up, these women also received dignity kits consisting of buckets, reusable hygienic bands, laundry and toilet soaps, loincloths, underwear and other hygiene products.
According to Dr. Jeannine Mahagi, head doctor of the Goma health zone, these care offers meet an urgent need, because when there is a massive displacement of the population, women move with a variety of needs and need urgent care in reproductive health.
The campaign was also an opportunity to create a space for dialogue in the couple on the themes of sexuality and family planning. The women were thus able to assert their rights and were helped by the NGO to understand family planning.
Discussions also took place between women and their husbands on the issue of pregnancy and abortion. Dr. Célestin Iyango, East Zone focal point of the NGO IPAS, welcomes the initiative to provide this care in accordance with the laws of the DRC, but stresses that much remains to be done to improve women’s sexual rights.
In the DRC, sexual and reproductive health is a sensitive and little discussed subject. However, in 2018, the country published the Maputo Protocol which aims to promote safe abortions for displaced women victims of sexual violence. The action is in line with other steps, such as the publication of a circular guaranteeing access to abortion-related care, in accordance with the indications of the Protocol, and the adhesion of the Ministry of Public Health. evolving standards and guidelines relating to the application of the Protocol’s guidelines.
Despite this development, Dr. John, representative of the National Reproductive Health Program, calls on the displaced to entrust themselves to the health zone and other partners for rapid and timely care. Sexual and reproductive health remains a priority in the DRC, both for individual well-being and for the development of the country.
Sources:
– POLITICO.CD. (May 11, 2023). IPAS closes a campaign to provide care to displaced women in Bulengo.
– African Center for Research and Training in Infectiology, Improving the health and productivity of African populations (CARFA). (2019). Sexual and reproductive health: state of play in the DRC.
– Africa news. (2021). Sexual Violence and Reproductive Rights: The Challenges of the DRC