‘Race against time’ to help women who bore brunt of Cyclone Idai

As the full extent of destruction caused by Cyclone Idai across southern Africa continues to be assessed, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said it was in “a race against time” to protect women who bore the brunt of the storm as they tried to save their households and livelihoods.

UNFPA Representative in Mozambique, Andrea Wojnar, said their main challenge was “to provide women and adolescent girls, especially those who are pregnant and lactating, with lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services”. Cyclone Idai affected more than 75,000 pregnant women, with 45,000 births expected over the next six months, she said, 7,000 of which are at risk of “life-threatening complications” due to the flooding and destruction.

Touring several facilities and communities in Dondo District, in hard-hit Sofala Province, Ms. Wojnar was “devastated” to see young girls giving birth in maternity wards with enormous holes in the roof, and nurses living with their families in muddy tents next to the cyclone-battered clinics.

“With at least 35 health facilities fully or partially destroyed, and health workers themselves left homeless or stricken”, said the UNFPA Representative, “we are working around the clock with the Government and other partners to restore basic maternal and child healthcare”.

As part of its revised humanitarian response plan, UNFPA is appealing for more than $9 million to provide reproductive health supplies and services to Mozambique – with prevention and response to gender-based violence the main priority.

At the end of a two-day visit to Mozambique, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, said that the international community must step up support to victims of the cyclone and flooding that have devastated large areas of the country.

Original source: UN News
Published on 27 March 2019