I have had an amazing revelation in Ghana: talking about sex is an incredibly empowering thing. I spend an awful lot- if not the majority- of my time here talking about it. I have daily conversations with my boss about it. You may not have noticed but a great deal of this blog has been about it. The words family planning, sexual and reproductive health and contraception sound incredibly professional but they all relate to sex. In fact, they all exist because of sex. Not just that, they all exist because people are having sex. And not just for procreation.
All of Theatre for a Change’s projects have a sexual health dimension. Even those placing emphasis on gender equality and female empowerment are intrinsically linked to sex. How can women be empowered without the ability to negotiate contraception or control their family planning? The HIV prevalence rate in Ghana is currently 1.37%: an all-time low. Compare that to other African countries and it is an impressive figure. Sadly the marked improvement has meant that funders are losing interest in Ghana over the issue of sexual and reproductive health and the focus has turned to entrepeneurship and enterprise: Ghana is a middle-income country, after all.
All of Theatre for a Change’s projects have a sexual health dimension. Even those placing emphasis on gender equality and female empowerment are intrinsically linked to sex. How can women be empowered without the ability to negotiate contraception or control their family planning? The HIV prevalence rate in Ghana is currently 1.37%: an all-time low. Compare that to other African countries and it is an impressive figure. Sadly the marked improvement has meant that funders are losing interest in Ghana over the issue of sexual and reproductive health and the focus has turned to entrepeneurship and enterprise: Ghana is a middle-income country, after all.
I have mentioned the No Yawa project in passing several times in this blog. I believe it is one of the most important projects Theatre for a Change is currently implementing. No Yawa means ‘No Worries’. It is a Hakuna Matata approach to sexual health created by three partners: DKT International, the Grameen Foundation and Marie Stopes International Ghana. No Yawa is a youth-centric visual brand and mobile health platform that encourages and educates young people on the importance of sexual health. It promotes open and honest discourse, attempting to break the sexual taboo across Ghana. As a Headmaster at a recent activation said, ‘there are things that are kept from you… it is time to be honest’.
Theatre for a Change is looking after the activations for No Yawa. Together with DKT, our teams of actors visit schools and communities across five regions of Ghana. In front of an enthusiastic audience, the actors play out a scenario where a young woman becomes pregnant and unsuccesfully attempts to abort her child. It sounds extreme but I know people who have lost friends this way; 45% abortions in Ghana are unsafe. Following the performance, the students are encouraged to participate: one by one the young women will come and demonstrate to their peers how to negotiate condom use, how to say no and how to stand up for their rights. The results are often funny, informative and empowering.
The importance of this project is encapsulated in the words of the Project Manager, Jonas, in his introductory speech: ‘to protect your sexual health is to protect your dreams’. HIV prevalence has improved across general populations in Ghana but unprotected sex is still happening everywhere and it is preventing young people from reaching their full potential.
The importance of this project is encapsulated in the words of the Project Manager, Jonas, in his introductory speech: ‘to protect your sexual health is to protect your dreams’. HIV prevalence has improved across general populations in Ghana but unprotected sex is still happening everywhere and it is preventing young people from reaching their full potential.
We in the UK take for granted how liberal our culture is regarding sex and how strong that makes us as individuals. I was putting condoms on bananas in a biology lesson aged 12; our schools and Universities offer free contraception and pregnancy tests, as do our Sexual Health clinics. I was shocked to discover that there is no free contraception available in Ghana. Many of the students we work with will never have even seen a condom let alone know how to use one. We are not allowed to sell them or demonstrate condom use as part of the project: the Ghana Education Policy does not permit it. Many of the youth do ask though. There is clearly a need.
Before I came to Ghana I was living in ignorance of the intrinsic link between empowerment and sexual health. I am sure it is no coincidence that I have been out of school for nearly nine years and- to the best of my knowledge- my year is yet to produce its first child. As I mentioned in a former blog, my school was famed for producing career-minded women. I have no doubt my peers are militant about their sexual health and, when the time comes, they will choose when and how they would like to have children. No Yawa is doing an incredible job of encouraging the young women and men of Ghana to do the same. But more initiatives of this nature are needed. Funders need to realise that ploughing money into enterprise is fruitless without the basic facts of life taken care of. There were 750,000 teenage pregnancies in Ghana last year; around 37% of all pregnancies in the country are unplanned.
Jonas asks the young audience at the start of each activation: ‘Do you have dreams?’.
‘YES!’ roars back the reply.
‘Are you lawyers?’
‘YES!’
‘Are you doctors?’
‘YES!’
‘Are you teachers?’
‘YES!’
This exchange is incredible to hear. It is echoed everywhere we go. 'To protect your sexual health is to protect your dreams'. We must protect their dreams.
Before I came to Ghana I was living in ignorance of the intrinsic link between empowerment and sexual health. I am sure it is no coincidence that I have been out of school for nearly nine years and- to the best of my knowledge- my year is yet to produce its first child. As I mentioned in a former blog, my school was famed for producing career-minded women. I have no doubt my peers are militant about their sexual health and, when the time comes, they will choose when and how they would like to have children. No Yawa is doing an incredible job of encouraging the young women and men of Ghana to do the same. But more initiatives of this nature are needed. Funders need to realise that ploughing money into enterprise is fruitless without the basic facts of life taken care of. There were 750,000 teenage pregnancies in Ghana last year; around 37% of all pregnancies in the country are unplanned.
Jonas asks the young audience at the start of each activation: ‘Do you have dreams?’.
‘YES!’ roars back the reply.
‘Are you lawyers?’
‘YES!’
‘Are you doctors?’
‘YES!’
‘Are you teachers?’
‘YES!’
This exchange is incredible to hear. It is echoed everywhere we go. 'To protect your sexual health is to protect your dreams'. We must protect their dreams.