Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights up close: 5 stories that show us what choice really looks like
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights up close: 5 stories that show us what choice really looks like
Choice is not easy to talk about in the abstract. In practice, it’s shaped by small, everyday realities: how far someone has to walk to reach care, who feels welcome in a conversation, and what someone can afford to decide for themselves.
During Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) week, we’re taking a closer look at what makes those choices possible in people’s daily lives. These stories come from communities in Zambia and Malawi, and remind us that SRHR is not just one service or one moment, but the everyday conditions that shape whether people are able to make choices about their bodies, their health, and their futures.
Access: when care is close enough to reach
In rural parts of Zambia, access to health care is often defined by distance. For many women and girls, the nearest clinic is located so far away that care becomes something that feels out of reach.
When a mobile clinic arrives in villages like Chianga, care suddenly feels possible. Health care provider Raphanzel Phiri helps bring sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, HIV testing, and reproductive health information, directly to the community. But access doesn’t just mean proximity, it also means privacy.
Inside the clinic, women and girls are able to ask questions freely and safely, many of them coming with questions they’ve never been comfortable to ask before. For Raphanzel, it’s about more than treating people. “It’s about empowering people to take control of their futures,” she says.
Access is where choice begins.
Education: the power of returning
At sixteen, Yvonne Nkomanthenga’s education came to an abrupt stop when she was forced to leave school after becoming pregnant, and her parents told her to leave home.
Through a youth support group supported by the Her Future, Her Choice project, Yvonne learned about her rights and was encouraged to return to school. “Returning to school was the hardest and best decision I ever made,” Yvonne tells us, and she now hopes to become a nurse, and help others see their potential as well.
Education is sometimes treated as separate from sexual and reproductive health, but for girls like Yvonne, the two are inseparable. Her story shows that SRHR is about choice–about whether pregnancy closes off a girl’s future, or whether she still has the power to decide what comes next.
Men’s engagement: choice is shared
In many countries, sexual and reproductive health is treated as a women’s issue, and men are often absent from conversations about contraception, consent, and family planning, even though these decisions shape entire communities.
Laston Peter, a peer educator from Balaka, Malawi, spends his days in conversations with both young men and young women. He talks about issues that for some may be the first time they’ve ever been asked about.
He knows that shift personally. “Sometimes, men feel like these issues don’t concern them,” he says. “But they do. I had to learn that too.”
For him, sexual and reproductive health is about shared responsibility, and when responsibility is shared, women are better supported in the choices they make.
Support: when questions feel safe
Today, Busiku starts her day early. She arranges chairs, hangs banners, and prepares teaching charts before other young people arrive to her shared learning space. And this space shapes young people’s lives. It’s a place where questions about sexual and reproductive health and rights are welcome.
As a peer educator in Zambia, Busiku supports fellow adolescents by sharing information, guidance, and counselling. What Busiku offers is familiarity, someone who listens, understands, and offers support in a space that feels safe. “It feels good that my peers trust me,” she says.
It’s easier to ask hard questions when information comes from someone you trust. And support, when shared between peers, makes space for choice to emerge.
Economic power: how choice is often shaped by what we can afford
Before Christina joined a savings and loans group, accessing health services like contraceptives was challenging.
But over time, that began to change. Through her savings, Christina was able to grow her business capital, build a house, and access contraceptives. The shift was not only practical, but it was also deeply personal, and she was able to help other girls and women in her village.
“Economic empowerment has given us more control over our lives and health,” she tells us. With financial independence came the resources to choose for her body and her future, and her story shows us how sexual and reproductive health and rights are often shaped by economic reality.
Across these stories, choice doesn’t show up all at once. It shows up slowly, in a clinic that arrives closer to home, in a classroom door being opened again, in a conversation that includes everyone, in a trusted space to ask a question, and in having the resources to choose.
During SRHR week, these stories remind us that SRHR is lived in the everyday. It is not just one thing, but a series of everyday moments that make choice real.
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