New Telegraph-Admin 
Initiative to Resist Institutional Slavery and Exploitation (IRISE) has taken the campaign for reproductive health and family planning to Lagos State communities, stressing more on the right of women to make vital decisions on health matters concerning them. This year’s campaign which commenced in February, 2024 has seen IRISE move to mostly marginalised communities.
Between September 21 to 22, IRISE mobilised and educated mostly low income and marginalised urban poor living at Lafenwa community in Ejigbo, Ilasa and Okota areas, having being in Ajegunle communities in Ajeromi/Ifelodun in February this year. The campaign deeply resonated emotionally with participants through impactful theatre performances, while also providing access to counseling, testing, and ongoing support.
Omodele Ibitoye Ejeh, the Executive Director of IRISE, the One Billion Rising Coordinator in Nigeria and a Professional Counselor with over 22 years of experience, speaking on what informed her organising the campaign said, “The campaign titled in Yoruba, ‘To Bà Sé Wo,’ meaning, If It Is You, is looking at sexual reproductive health, education and right, and we are actually focusing on stigmatization from abortion and death from unsafe abortion.”
Ejeh who is an Area Reference Person for an International Counseling Community said that due to the fact that a lot of women and young women of reproductive age die from unsafe abortion and because of negative religious beliefs and societal stigma, they coined the theme of the campaign from the point of view of empathy.
“If you were in such a situation, if it was you what would you do? Would you also take that route of safe abortion procedure or would you rather say Oh because of stigma let me stay and use clandestine unsafe means that can either injure ok kill myself, or just stay and bear this burden of injuries and pains and all that.
What would you do? So that was how the project was formed.” This Campaign focuses on empowering women and girls and their communities to make informed choices about women’s health, with the goal of reducing mortality and preventing injury. Omodele Ejeh therefore, advised the women to speak up, to come out to learn and get educated.
“My message to women is to keep supporting each other, not to be silent and not to allow themselves to be silenced by stigma or whatever the society is doing to them, because society has a way of silencing women from speaking up about their experiences. I am encouraging women to speak up, to come out and learn, get educated and also be part of the advocacy and be champions of their communities for better lives for women just like themselves.”
