Half way through

Two months have suddenly passed and I find myself being half way through this experience. 
Just imagining that in two more months I will be back in Sweden, gives me ambiguous feelings. It will be heartbreaking to say goodbye to all the wonderful inspiring persons that I have gotten to know here. Every day still feels like an adventure, so much to learn, so many new encounters, experiences and wonderful memories. Honduras is truly getting closer and closer to my heart each day. It will also be wonderful to come back to a safe and clean Sweden, reuniting with friends and family and continue my "ordinary life". But I'm afraid I will become a bit depressed. Thank god I'm returning to a happy summer-Sweden at least. 

I have learned a thing or two about the reality of peoples lives here, it is a rough place to live for the main part of the population. The violence is something I don't think I will ever get used to. It is piercing through all levels of the society, domestic, institutional, structural violence, violations of human rights etc, putting its weight on the everyday life in a profound way. And nobody is safe from this, it affects everyone (of course not in the same way and amount). Security here is privatized, but not even the rich population of Honduras is safe, security is an illusion. 
The only thing to do is to continue fighting by spreading information, educating the people, to take action, being creative, creating networks nationally and internationally, putting pressure on the authorities. The expression "never give up" has gotten a deeper meaning, it is truly inspiring to see the passion of these people, no matter what comes next they keep on fighting. They are the hope and the backbone of the country. I don't even want to imagine a Honduras without them. 

las luchadoras!

Right now in the CEM-H we are working hard for the legalization of the emergency contraceptive pills. 
These are the pills that you can take up to three days after having unprotected sex if you do not want to become pregnant. It is preventive, not abortive. The pill prevents the egg from becoming fertilized, it does not terminate the pregnancy. 
In Honduras, these pills are prohibited. It is the only country in the world where the ECP are prohibited. The government made the selling and buying of this product illegal in 2009. Abortion is also totally prohibited, no matter the circumstances. But, a young girl that has become violated, surely she does not need to carry out a pregnancy? Yes indeed she does, in the eyes of the state and the church there is no other way. If an abortion is carried out, it punishable by three to six years of imprisonment(!!). 
So why is the emergency contraceptive pill prohibited, you ask?  
The main reason (according to them) is because the ECP is considered (by the government) as an emergency abortion pill. 
Even though it is scientifically proven and generally known that this is not the case, somehow the religious and powerful sectors of Honduras have managed to convince the contrary to the government and a big part of the population. The sexual education in Honduras is very poor, thus making it easy to spread this kind of dogma. 
This is of course abusing the human rights of the women, not being able to decide over their own bodies. It brings countless fatal consequences on the society and on the girls and women. 
So now we are trying to convince the authorities to decriminalize the ECP, and also educate the public about the affects of the pills. This is an important fight, but there is a lot more concerning sexual education that needs to be improved. The tabu concerning sex is hard to remove and the religious pressure is heavy, many schools does not educate their students on these topics.

follow the fight on #sialasPAE on facebook!