Put discomfort aside to tackle issues

Unsafe and illegal abortion pills flooding Namibian streets and schools are just one of the many worrying consequences of limited family planning services and the country’s reluctance to tackle difficult topics related to ensuring the equal and inclusive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls in Namibia.

An investigation launched by the Office of the First Lady, in conjunction with the Namibian police, uncovered the ease in which women, including adolescent girls, are able to access dangerous abortion pills, which are openly, and without consequence, advertised on Namibian social media platforms.

According to the police, a network distributes the pills in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and other African countries, and school principals have reported the pills are also increasingly being sold on school grounds.

“The volumes of pills they are pushing into this country are unbelievable. We know about it because we see it often on Facebook, and they are shameless,” youth advocate and #BeFree founder Monica Geingos said on Monday.

Geingos was speaking on Monday at the launch of a roundtable discussion on equality and inclusion understood in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Namibia which was hosted by the Office of the Ombudsman, with support from the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Geingos warned that the supply of abortion pills meet the demand being created in the absence of comprehensive family planning services in Namibia.

“Anywhere there is a void, it’s going to be filled and filled in a dangerous way.”

She urged Namibians to undertake the “difficult discussions around what does it mean when we speak about the full range of services about family planning”.

She said one of the most pivotal lessons she has learned through working with young Namibians, “in a nutshell”, is that “whatever we are relying on, if it doesn’t stop the problem, then it shouldn’t be used to stop the solutions. Then we must all evaluate our unconscious biases”.

She said every Namibian, “from family level, to health providers, teachers, and police officers … we must each examine our attitudes and our judgements, before we will get anything right on this topic”.

Geingos added that overall, “we are way too judgemental and we are entirely out of touch.”

She also urged Namibians to rethink and cast aside language used to describe chronic issues such as murder of domestic partners, and infanticide.

She said the terms ‘passion killing’ – “there is nothing passionate about killing another human being”, and ‘baby dumping’ – “all of us visualise someone basically just throwing their baby on the ground, and walking off, as if they are a cold and heartless person,” are unhelpful descriptions that worsen an already significant problem.

“We use judgemental language to describe issues. And people are then forced to keep quiet and to themselves.”

Speak up

She said the time has come to articulate “our position” on troubling issues for which their currently aren’t any real social consequences, such as men preying on young, economically vulnerable woman, which compromises their rights and abilities to choose.

“Society accepts you. It’s normal. We must tell people it is not normal to prey on young girls who are still school-going.”

Geingos proposed that, while not many may agree, access to expansive and wide-ranging family planning services could play a key role in eradicating poverty in Namibia.

“Because when we bring children into the world where we cannot protect them from harm, and look after their most basic needs, we make that the responsibility of a government that is itself struggling to provide access to basic services.”

She underlined that young people most often “bear the brunt of inequality, unemployment as this compromises their access to economic autonomy, access to education, and healthcare”.

This in turn, weakens the negotiating powers and infringes on their ability to access services and their rights.

She underlined the importance of speaking to the youth in a language they understand and use; stressed the importance of providing non-judgemental platforms, as well as reaching out to where they are, including nightclubs and schools.