UNFPA looks at women's needs in post-cyclone Vanuatu

Transcript

The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, says women's needs are often overlooked after a natural disaster.

The UNFPA Pacific Gender Adviser Maha Muna was part of a team that went to Vanuatu to assess the plight of women after Cyclone Pam.

Ms Muna told Koro Vaka'uta over 400 dignity health packs were handed out to women and reproductive health kits will be distributed shortly as she predicts over 900 obstetric emergencies in the next nine months in Vanuatu.

The UNFPA is also arranging midwives from Fiji to travel to Vanuatu to help pregnant women.

MAHA MUNA:  The main task really in the chronic critical period is to work with the Ministry of Health and ensure that ante-natal/post-natal services can be sustained during the emergency.  Also to make sure that protection issues that come up in a country like Vanuatu where the Vanuatu Women's Counselling Centre has produced a report showing 60% intimate partner violence, 48% non-partner violence, that that's not further exacerbated by the emergency conditions.  That was really the focus of our work.  We were also able to mobilise young people who come forward as volunteers who have networks in the community and community-based organisations, to find remedies and really get the resilience of the community supported through our technical assistance.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  We know the basics such as food, water and shelter are always in need in these sorts of situations but how about these women that you were looking at?  What are some of the issues that they are facing that people might not even comprehend or think of?

MM:  We found when we went to distribute what we call dignity kits which are hygiene packs that are really targeted at women of reproductive age that include sanitary napkins for example which are often left out from distribution.  What we found that women continue to give birth during the cyclone, have small infant children who require care and they themselves were being already impacted by the food insecurity as a result of the cyclone destroying much of the food reserves in the country.  We were able to work with the Ministry of Health to have ante-natal care/post-natal care check-ups out in a remote settlement in the very first mission that we did.

KV:  The UNFPA has seen the re-opening of markets as vitally important for women.  Tell us about that issue.

MM:  Re-opening of markets is very important because markets provide women with the resources to send kids back to school, to have money to be able to take the bus to go to the health centre.  In some of the evacuation camps where people really had nothing they told us they couldn't even have the bus fare to go to the health centre.  Re-opening the markets is being examined as part of the protection cluster response.  We've been advocating to have the markets open as soon as possible, in a way that is of course safe for women so perhaps within the curfew period to 6pm.  To enable women to have access to resources to support their family and sustain their resilience as a community.