A Tale From The Grave Yard

My name is Adjoa and I am sharing my story with you from the grave. Are you surprised? Please don’t be! Because like you, I was once alive!

I was the only girl among four brothers; the first time I told my parents I wanted to go school just like my brothers I was beaten like an armed robber. My mother sold kenkey in the evening so I helped her prepare and sold to our customers. Through this I found a friend who claimed to love me. I knew very little about love and I wanted to talk to my parents about it but I remembered my father’s reaction when he found out my brother had a girlfriend. He beat the hell out of him! But I liked my new friend; he gave me all the attention I never had from my parents and even from my siblings. He bought me nice gifts and oh! He was good looking too.

Six months after I accepted a proposal to be his girlfriend I started seeing some changes in my body. My breasts became very tender, I didn’t see my menses for about three months and I got tired easily too. I was not too sure what was happening to my body but my mother suspected I was pregnant. At that point I got confused. But the pregnancy was confirmed.

I had spoken to Afua, my friend about my situation who said she knew a woman who could help me get rid of the pregnancy. She took me to a woman whose specialty was to help young women abort pregnancies. I was shocked to see a lot of girls in a queue waiting to be attended to. After waiting for a while I was asked by the woman to come indoors. She then showed me a concoction made from substances I could recognize easily.

She then inserted the concoction into my vagina and it felt uncomfortable. She reassured me that everything was going be okay. Afua took me home and minutes later I began to bleed profusely. God! Please, please, help me. I cried! It didn’t take long for my mother to realize what was happening to me. She called for a taxi to transport me to the hospital after seeing the state I was in. I could hear my mother pleading with one of the nurses to save her only daughter’s life. But the nurse retorted I deserved every bit of my pain for attempting an abortion. Now I am in the grave together with my dream of becoming a doctor. I may have made a mistake by getting pregnant but I think I deserved better care from the health worker whose responsibility is to save lives.

You don’t have to die from an abortion! Are you pregnant and confused, have you missed your period?

Call 0302 689 617 or WhatsApp 020 580 2800 or log on to www.adhdghana.org to talk to a counsellor.