Sana’a, Yemen, 9 March 2016 – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, estimates that at least 90,000 pregnant women are in Taizz City, with 4,500 of them facing the risk of dying due to complications during childbirth within the next nine months. Urgent care and medical supplies are needed to safeguard the health of pregnant women and their babies.
With severely disrupted health services and critical shortages of medical supplies in Taizz City, UNFPA has stepped up its efforts by providing reproductive health kits that ensure safe deliveries, catering to nearly 1,500 pregnant women in the districts of Hifan, Al-Turba, Mawya, Al-Rahida, Dimnat Khadir and Sharab. Mobile reproductive health clinics providing antenatal and postnatal care, and facilities for safe deliveries, are also operating within the peripheries of these six districts to meet the reproductive health needs of those fleeing the enclaved areas.
“In collaboration with our local partners, we are trying our best to provide critical services and reach enclaved areas,” stated Lene K. Christiansen, UNFPA Representative to Yemen. “We estimate that least 6,000 pregnant women are enclaved in three districts of Taizz, with 1,200 of them at risk of dying due to complications during childbirth.”
Since January 2016, UNFPA has provided more than 5,000 dignity kits to the most vulnerable women and girls in six districts of Taizz including the enclaved district of Salh. With the personal hygiene items and culturally appropriate clothing included in these kits, women will not only be able to maintain their personal hygiene, particularly menstrual hygiene, but will enjoy improved mobility and reduced vulnerability to gender-based violence when seeking humanitarian aid. Services for survivors of gender-based violence are also being provided through local partners in these districts, with a growing need for psychosocial support services being reported.
“When I received my dignity kit, I just cried and I made the distribution team cry too. I am just so happy. I don’t have clothes or anything to keep myself clean, this is so helpful to me,” said a woman who had just fled an enclaved area in Taizz with her two children.
UNFPA also plans to distribute life-saving medicines to health facilities across the country to meet the needs of more than 500,000 pregnant women.
Through the recently launched 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response, UNFPA has appealed for $15.6 million to ensure sexual and reproductive health services and to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in Yemen.
For more information, please contact: Lankani Sikurajapathy: Tel. +962 796434401; sikurajapathy@unfpa.org
