Defending ladies’s well being in Bangladesh — International Points

Sunamganj is a district within the wetland ecosystem in northeast Bangladesh, which is especially susceptible to local weather change. Floods arrive shortly and instantly and may final for weeks. They disrupt life, displace households and lower off entry to companies.

For the over 670,000 ladies of reproductive age dwelling within the space, more and more excessive climate occasions are threatening their entry to reproductive healthcare.

Preparation and planning

To assist put together for these crises, UNFPA is coaching reproductive-aged ladies to guard themselves and their kids through the subsequent flood.

Shakila Akhter, a 24-year-old mom of two, was eight months pregnant over the past flood.

“Because of the coaching I obtained, I knew what to hold, put together and defend my household,” she recalled. She now makes use of household planning instruments she didn’t find out about earlier than: “I need to select once I’m prepared for one more baby.”

She additionally underscored the hyperlink between local weather change and these extreme floods: “We perceive that the local weather has modified over the previous 20 years. In Bangladesh, the flood season has turn into longer, sudden floods are extra frequent, heatwaves have intensified, and winters are actually shorter.

“So, all of us ought to be ready to handle it to outlive.”

Native volunteers

This coaching is made potential by volunteers educated to assist others put together for local weather shocks.

Shakila Begum, 26, started volunteering with simply two days of coaching. She works with the Local weather Resilience Well being System and Neighborhood initiative – supported by the UNFPA and the Swedish Worldwide Improvement Cooperation Company – which educates ladies on matters from menstruation to childbirth throughout floods.

Ms. Begum is now the purpose of contact for 75 households, serving to them with points like household planning and maternal healthcare.

“One girl had dangerously hypertension simply earlier than giving start,” she recalled. “I suggested her household to go to the native hospital, the place she safely delivered – utterly freed from price.”

Empowerment via secure areas

The initiative additionally gives secure neighborhood areas the place ladies can find out about sexual and reproductive well being.

In Kurban Nagarn, an space in Sunamganj, volunteers have begun internet hosting “avenue dramas”. The volunteers act out scenes associated to points equivalent to maternal well being, catastrophe preparedness and baby marriage prevention, with over 500 folks attending every efficiency.

Taskira Hauque Tazin, a neighborhood pupil, is among the transferring theatre’s core members. She has attended many conferences in Bangladesh and overseas, the place she shares her experiences and is recognised for her work.

“I really feel proud to work for girls’s empowerment and to help underprivileged communities. Via these performs, we increase consciousness so that girls don’t fall behind. We need to cease early marriage, promote women’ schooling, and be certain that ladies get entry to maternal well being care,” she stated. “Whether or not it’s within the solar, rain, or storm – we’ll hold doing this work for the folks.”

Anima Akhter, a 24-year-old mom in Kurban Nagarn, defined that the road dramas present a secure house for troublesome conversations: “We need to share our issues, particularly about our our bodies – however we frequently can’t communicate.”

With the help of native volunteers, Anima delivered her youngest baby safely on the hospital.

Amina’s husband, Nurul, now accompanies her to neighborhood periods and has turn into a task mannequin locally, receiving coaching from volunteers to show his neighbours about ladies’s and women’ well being.

“Since my spouse underwent coaching, I took it very critically and felt impressed to assist our neighbours, particularly regarding ladies’s and women’ well being,” he stated. “I frequently speak about these necessary messages with different males on the tea stall, encouraging them to be ready for disasters and to take the identical precautions.

“I urge them to hunt assist from service suppliers in the event that they face any issues, particularly regarding pregnant ladies’s deliveries and household planning strategies.”

Ongoing challenges

However challenges stay regardless of the perfect efforts of the UNFPA and different UN companions.

In flood-prone villages in Sunamganj, over half of deliveries nonetheless happen at dwelling.

Many ladies and women additionally nonetheless really feel disgrace discussing matters like menstruation, and cultural norms usually prohibit ladies who try to generate their very own earnings.

These vulnerabilities confronted by ladies and women are exacerbated by climate-related disasters, which regularly hit them the toughest.

Continued commitments

From 28 to 31 July, world consultants convened on the International Symposium on Local weather Justice and Impacted Populations in Brasília, co-hosted by UNFPA and the Authorities of Brazil.

There, leaders labored to handle the disproportionate affect of local weather change on ladies and women. The occasion referred to as for gender-inclusive local weather negotiations and a renewed dedication to understanding the affect local weather change has on sexual and reproductive well being and rights.

Diene Keita, Appearing Govt Director of UNFPA, highlighted the gendered affect of local weather change on the occasion: “The proof tells us that local weather change is rising the danger of maternal mortality, disrupting entry to contraceptives and rising the danger of gender-based violence.”

“Our collective efforts have to strengthen the resilience of girls, women and well being techniques to resist and adapt to local weather shocks,” Ms. Keita burdened. “Being ready, responding quickly, and constructing ahead higher should be central pillars for our work.”