Dear decision makers of the world, let women make their own decisions about their bodies, okay?

A new report from the United Nations says this, just in a lot more words. The UN Special Rapporteur on Health, Anand Grover, informed member states that states should be providing safe and legal abortion for all of their women, and that not doing so is messing with women’s rights.

His views are highly unpopular (surprise, surprise) within the UN. Many officials are going as far as to say Grover was overstepping his mandate as special rapporteur. In case you didn’t know what the heck a special rapporteur does, I’m here to inform you. They are appointed through the United Nations but operate independently to address human rights problems globally. They do research, write reports and make suggestions on how countries can improve their human rights.

Yes, abortion is a highly controversial issue, but it can’t be ignored. Globally, Grover estimate 44,000 women die as a result of illegal abortions each year. Some people are questioning this figure, but it’s really not that surprising. For as long as women have been getting pregnant, they have been finding ways to not be pregnant. Regardless of whether abortion is legal or not, if a women truly wants an abortion she will find a way to have one. When I was in Ghana (coincidentally Grover was touring the country while I was there), I talked to an NGO that educates women on safe abortions, and learned about the measures women go to to not be pregnant. Teenage girls take herbal concoctions until they bleed (thinking they’ve gotten their periods) and women sometimes resort to swallowing glass. It’s not a happy picture in any way. Here’s what the report says:

Criminal prohibition of abortion is a very clear expression of State interference with a woman’s sexual and reproductive health because it restricts a woman’s control over her body, possibly subjecting her to unnecessary health risks. Criminal prohibition also requires women to continue unplanned pregnancies and give birth when it is not their choice to do so.

Yeah, so you could have your women searching out back alley abortions, or you could protect them and provide safe, medical environments for them. Another point Grover makes, is the need for governments to fund family planning services. This can prevent women from needing abortions in the first place, because an abortion is not family planning.

I know there’s going to be a lot of comments agreeing with the countries who are arguing with Grover, many of which will be about morality. Well my man has a point for that too. He believes public morality shouldn’t trump human rights and public health shouldn’t be regulated by criminal law.

Photo credit: Chris Tse

While many university students spent their summers in minimum wage jobs or fetching coffee, I spent mine interning in Ghana.

In case you need a little geography and history lesson, Ghana is located in west Africa, and shares borders with Cote D’Ivoire, Togo and Burkina Faso. It’s also one of Africa’s leading examples for democracy; it was the first sub-saharan country to gain independence from its colonial power, and since the 1992 constitution was approved there have been five relatively democratic elections.

I traveled to Ghana with the Canadian ngo, Journalists for Human Rights, as one of five university interns. My internship was spent in the newsroom of an English radio station, Kapital Radio, in the country’s second largest city, Kumasi. Four days a week I would head to the station to work on daily news bulletins, go out to cover stories with local journalists, then head back to the station to edit sound clips and write scripts. Every Saturday I would help produce Ghana’s only exclusive human rights talk show, Know Your Rights, hosted by my supervisor, Muftaw Mohammed. Each week we would tackle one of the country’s human rights issues, from the highly controversial homosexuality to land rights under traditional rule.

Though I only worked at the station four days a week, I didn’t exactly get a long weekend. On top of the work I did at Kapital Radio, I had a series of deliverables to be completed for jhr, including weekly video and written blogs and research on Maternal Health. So I got to see a lot of adorable Ghanaian babies.

My summer wasn’t all work though. During our week long vacation, one of my Canadian colleagues and I traveled through six regions –  from Accra to Bawku – in eight days, with many stops along the way. All on buses and tro-tros, which are kind of like a large van. Throughout my 14 weeks in Ghana I went on a walking safari at Mole National Park, trekked through the forest at the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, watched the national soccer team play and hung out at a popular beach spot at night.

My experience wasn’t your typical going to Africa to do development work and think you’re saving the world experience. I learned more from my time in the country than I’m sure anyone learned from me. I stumbled my way through Twi, the local dialect in Kumasi; learned how to properly eat fufu (a local dish) with my hands and learned about the history of the Ashanti people. The beautiful landscapes and welcoming people are just a few of the reasons I would recommend spending some time in Ghana.

Check out some of my amazing photos from Ghana below:

initiating the gallery...

Now imagine knowing that if you lived anywhere other than Africa, you could probably be cured.

Imagine being 14 years old and knowing this.

Meet Felix Yeboah, a Ghanaian teenager with chronic kidney failure.

On Sunday, March 3, in a life-saving emergency operation, Felix received his father’s kidney at the University Hospital in Birmingham, UK, care of Transplant Links, an organization of experienced kidney transplant doctors who volunteer their time and abilities in countries like Ghana.

According to an article in a Ghanian newspaper from August 2006, kidney failure in Ghana forms 35% of medical admissions. Out of the 5000-8000 patients in Ghana, only 35 received haemodialysis (a nessary procedure to prevent total kidney failure) per year! As of the time of that article, there were 17 haemodialysis machines in the entire country.

According to the Transplant Links website, in some African countries, HIV/AIDS is more treatable than Kidney Failure.

This past November, Felix addressed the crowd at the first meeting of the Kidney Transplant Foundation. In the crowd was surgeon Andrew Ready of the Transplant Links organization. He was deeply moved by Felix:

“Felix emerged from the crowd and came up to the podium to speak. He was so small he had to be held up to be seen […] There are ethical issues around selecting people to help in these circumstances but we were so taken by Felix’s speech that we thought we must try to do something. It was as if he had found us rather than we had found him.”

What will Felix Yeboah do now?

“ I want this operation so I can play football again and go to school so I can train to become a doctor and help other people.”

His is a tale of being in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, this is not the case for millions of suffers from chronic kidney failure in Africa.

Kidney disease is an awful experience but with modern day medicine it can be survived and overcome.

The story of Felix demonstrates the importance of organizations such as Transplant Links. Yearly checkups, vaccinations, and treatments, all things you and I probably take for granted, can save lives in countries such as Ghana.

To learn more about organizations like Transplant Links and volunteer opportunities check out these links:

Check out the official website of Transplant Links.

Spread the word about the importance of treating Kidney Disease:

World Kidney Day is March 13th

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Not Pre-Med? No problem! Join the Global Health Corps and volunteer overseas in the area of Public Health