From a young age, girls are exposed to posters on the side of the road reading “quick & painless abortion”. It doesn’t take long before this message is ingrained in their heads and such information is ready to be used in case they ever find themselves in this situation.
Since its launch, Fem’s main goal is to guarantee connections to safe abortion providers for women. This is why, on Safe Abortion International Day, the Fem team decided to challenge unsafe abortion providers,who are promoting unsafe services on posters around the country. There are hundreds of these posters plastered around communities in South Africa. As soon as a poster starts to lose visual appeal, it is replaced with another until they make layers are pasted on top of each other. Fem wants these walls to be filled with promotion of safe abortion providers, and we are willing to offer our own mapping information of verified facilities where one can be well-treated regardless of what their personal decision is.
Removing the posters was not easy. A team of 12 dedicated people from Fem and Activate Change Drivers were there to tackle the issue along with the support of Pikitup,the waste management service provider to the City of Joburg. They provided us with gloves, as well as plastic bags to throw the posters away once removed . We used butter knives and vinegar to remove the posters.
The response from the clean-up was beyond everything we had ever imagined. We’ve received messages of support from all over the country and we will continue this movement. You’re welcome to join us and to organize your own clean-ups! Let us know when it will happen and Fem will support you.
SOURCE: safe2choose, 6 October 2017