Meet the 10 projects we are supporting with our inroads Partnership Fund (iPF) seed grants in 2021. 

They are a diverse group of initiatives from fearless grassroots organizations dedicated to advancing stigma-free abortion access, representation, research, and education in their communities. 

Sisters Taking Charge – Zambia

Capacity Building for Traditional Birth Attendants 

This project focuses on capacity-building for traditional birth attendants to mitigate abortion stigma, promote reproductive health information, and integrate their practice with referrals to health systems for safe abortions. 

The team perceived that people in many villages in their region have no knowledge of the existence of the Termination of Pregnancy Act and the service provision of safe abortion at the main medical facility. This work will be reaching out to women and girls who have for decades been marginalized simply because of location and so always thought abortion was a taboo and a curse.

AbortionData.org – Colombia

The Abortion Stigma Data Project

To fight stigma by researching, measuring, and providing easy-to-access data about abortion stigma in Colombia. They want to increase visibility and knowledge about stigma by exploring a methodological strategy to measure abortion stigma in the country.

The project aims to challenge traditional powers by producing data with a feminist and stigma-free approach. Providing these findings in a user-friendly and non-academic online source, so people with different expertise can access the results easily.

Vision in Action – Cameroon

Develop and test abortion stigma scale 

Develop and apply an abortion stigma measuring tool, to measure three different types of stigma in the Buea community. Lessons, findings, and processes will be shared as reports with all inroads members so that other members can easily adapt and use the new tool.

DOPO – England

Abortion Education Lessons + Resources for teenage education 

As of September 2020, it became compulsory for schools in England to teach age-appropriate relationships and sex education (RSE) to their students. This sounds great, but far too often, abortion is left out of the conversation. We are seeking to change this by creating lessons and educational resources for different key stages (as outlined by the state education system of the UK)  between the ages of 11 to 18, and trial it in schools around the country.

Tamtang Group – Thailand

Pilot project to use Tiktok to communicate abortion with youth.

Pilot project to use Tiktok to communicate about abortion with young people. We perceive that Thai youth is bombarded by negative, incorrect, and stigmatized ideas about sexual health, reproductive rights, and abortion from teachers and parents. This action aims to counter those negative ideas by providing positive and stigma-busting communication about abortion, abortion access, and sexual and reproductive rights.

We decided to use social media to communicate with youth because, with social media, there is no gatekeeper, and the information and message can go directly to them.

Living Equality – Rwanda

Speak-out Project: Adopting storytelling model to end abortion stigma in Rwanda

This project aims to harness storytelling models to reduce abortion stigma in Rwanda, using a participatory model to challenge stigmatized community attributes directed towards those who have had an abortion. 

Developing, producing, and disseminating knowledge products (e.g. infographic video of less than 5 min length) where young people who have had an abortion will be sharing about their lived experience in the community with particular focus on the types of stigma and the impact on their wellbeing in the family, society and even at their workplace. As well as, organizing community-based intergenerational dialogue on abortion stigma, and strengthening our toll-free line to continue providing stigma-free post-abortion counseling to women.

Silent Thoughts Collective– Kenya

Huduma kwa Wakunga wa Jadi (Care for Traditional Birth Attendants)

This project will provide psychosocial support for traditional birth attendants with the aim of developing and building their confidence, boldness, and resilience in offering abortion services, bringing out positive abortion stories in their communities, and strengthening linkages with healthcare providers.  We hope that they will become the voices of reproductive justice in their communities, and feel more confident in building referral linkages with healthcare providers to attend to people who need specialized care during or after an abortion.

Flavours of Family Planning – Rwanda

SAVE- Safe Abortion Videos Edutainment

SAVE-Safe Abortion Videos Edutainment aims at reaching future Rwandan physicians and the community with safe abortion knowledge covering both the clinical and legal aspects of safe abortion in the local Rwandan context, using Flavours of Family Planning edutainment that employs kitchen materials for hands-on simulation to deliver quality and gender-friendly information.

SAVE Innovation aims at training a cohort of 100 future physicians, and bringing content related to safe abortion policy and unsafe abortion prevention awareness to the community through displaying our edutainment at the selected popular local beauty salons where women and girls meet randomly.

Colectiva por la Libre Información para las Mujeres – Perú

Dissenting voices: Challenging the stigma of abortion from the health sector

To develop, in collaboration with organized medical students, a radio journalistic chronicle on the experiences of trainee and young healthcare personnel challenging the stigma of abortion in medical institutions and in health sector. It will be a piece (between 20 and 30 minutes) to be broadcast on podcast platforms, social networks, and spaces for training and student activism.

This radio piece prepared with a journalistic and feminist perspective will seek:

• Present in a critical way the ethical discussions and regulatory barriers that prevent health personnel from being able to provide care without stigma and without criminalization in abortion situations.
• Amplify dissident voices and experiences in the health sector that fight against the stigma of abortion.
• Promote critical reflection of health personnel –especially those in training- on their role in reducing the stigma of abortion, as well as their active involvement in improving the conditions of care for women and people with the possibility of gestation who require support and assistance.

Association Congolaise pour les Droits et la Santé (ACDS) – Congo

Halte à la stigmatisation de l’avortemen: Plus jamais ça!

The proposed project will be carried out in the rural area in the Republic of Congo, our country, where female people who request abortion services or who have already had an abortion find it difficult to talk about it, even to their relatives, regarding the stigma and discrimination that this can generate. The proposed project aims to create support groups to allow all those affected by abortion stigma to narrate their experience: through poetry, art, song, prose, and other forms of expression.

The idea is to set up an observatory of the stigmatization of abortion. The role of this platform, in the long term, will also be to measure the extent of the stigmatization of abortion in Congo at all levels.

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Thanks to donors, we are able to support those and many others stigma-busting efforts! Nourishing a network of over 1,700 fearless activists, artists, advocates, and community organizations dedicated to advancing stigma-free abortion in 109 countries.

Together, we can keep making inroads on abortion stigma for a healthier, happier, and more just world.