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UNFPA, IPPF to provide sexual and reproductive health services in Nepal
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have entered into a partnership to ensure that the need for the sexual and reproductive health care of young girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in Nepal is urgently met in the wake of the devastating earthquake on April 25
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he United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have entered into a partnership to ensure that the need for the sexual and reproductive health care of young girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in Nepal is urgently met in the wake of the devastating earthquake on April 25.
An estimated 2 million women of reproductive age have been affected by the disaster. Of these, there are about 126,000 currently pregnant women who are in urgent need of clean delivery and reproductive health kits. About 2,100 women may suffer from obstetric complications over the next month alone.
UNFPA estimates put about 40,000 women of reproductive age -- including those at camps for the displaced -- at increased risk of sexual violence.
The UNFPA has pledged support to IPPF's member association, the Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN), to expand and strengthen mobile medical camps. Safe delivery and reproductive health kits, as well as dignity kits that contain essentials like sanitary pads, have also been provided by the UNFPA through the IPPF to FPAN for women of reproductive age.
The UNFPA and the IPPF, through its SPRINT initiative, and FPAN are organizing mobile medical camps in affected areas to provide critical sexual and reproductive health services (SRH) along with general health services. So far, the IPPF through its SPRINT initiative along with FPAN volunteers and staff have mobilized three mobile teams and one referral unit. These mobile teams have, as of this writing, served more than 1,400 persons in need by providing counseling, consultation examination by doctors and medicines. This has been done at 10 different locations in some of the hardest-hit areas, including the Bhaktapur, Kavre, Lalitpur, Sindhupalchowk and Kathmandu districts.
"Pregnant women and new mothers are often ignored in the aftermath of a disaster, but they are among the most vulnerable and at-risk populations," the UNFPA's representative in Nepal, Giulia Vallese, said in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
"The UNFPA is grateful to the IPPF and FPAN for this partnership, for it is through our implementing partners on the ground that our lifesaving interventions reach those who need them the most," Vallese said. (ebf)(++++)
