PANOS Zambia New Project -Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Awareness for Women and Girls in Zambia 

Council of Churches in Zambia General Secretary Reverend Dr. Suzanne M’membe Matale

Maiko Zulu with Rainbow Youth Journalists in Libala

First Lady Esther Lungu

www.rainbownewszambia.com
Dear colleagues,
Panos is introducing a new project of SRHR for women and girls in Zambia. To be considered for this project, read the intro below and respond to it by answering the questions on the subject.
For more infor contact elias@panos.org.zm
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Challenges of dealing with unwanted pregnancies in your Community

First Lady Esther Lungu

1. Introduction
Zambia currently has the Termination of Pregnancy Act (TOP) of 1972 that legalizes abortion, yet the number of botched abortions are on the increase. There is also the penal code that criminalizes attempts at abortion outside the TOPs Act. The country also has a poor doctor patient ratio of 1:12,00. The TOP Act says for an abortion to occur three doctors have to okay the procedure and in the rural areas where no doctors are found this is an impossibility. The project therefore aims at training mainstream media and community radio journalists to understand the SRH rights of women and girls and to appreciate the existence of the TOP act and what it says about legal abortion. The project will provide support to selected investigative reporters to investigate the SRH challenges that women and girls in rural Zambia face and what policies need to be made to improve their access to SRH and to maternal and child health services. The project will also attempt to work with doctors to treat demand for abortion as a SRH rights of women. Finally the project will document the stories published from the SRH articles written by the media and document best practices for improving the TOP Act.
2. Objectives of the Project
The aim of the project is to:a) Create awareness on the challenges faced by women and girls in dealing with un wanted pregnancies
b) Create awareness on the existence of the law and procedures on termination of unwanted pregnancies
c) Support the media in covering sexual reproductive health rights of women and girls
The following will be the activities:
a) Train the media on the existence of the TOP Act and understanding SRH rights of women and girls
b) The project will sponsor SRH awareness media campaigns and radio broadcasts
c) Sponsor journalists to write about SRHR of women / abortions
d) Document and publish challenges being faced by both health centres in providing abortion services and women and girls in procuring this service
e) Advocate for policy change on abortion in Zambia

3. What to you are expected to do:
To be part of the project, Panos Institute Southern Africa would like to receive from you a two-page document indicating the following from your community:
I. Experience in reporting about unwanted pregnancies, abortions
II. Challenges of health centres in providing abortions in your area
III. Challenges of women in accessing abortion services (Is it culture? Religion? No available Health Services??)
IV. Recommendations to Government/Parliament on this subject – what should the government do?

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