UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is mobilizing medical teams and supplies to respond to the needs of thousands of pregnant and lactating women in various evacuation centers in areas affected by tropical storm Washi (locally named Sendong), in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in the Philippines.

Nearly 35,000 hygiene kits will be distributed to an estimated 8,500 pregnant women and 4,200 who are nursing babies six months and below. Other reproductive health kits, particularly clean delivery kits, are also on the way for immediate distribution. UNFPA is also donating medicines and medical supplies to two regional hospitals through the city health offices which have appealed for help.

Hygiene kits include basic supplies for women and girls to maintain personal sanitation. It contains such items as soap, changing garment, towel, sanitary pads, underwear and toilet paper, among others. These are placed in a bucket that could also be used for storing clean water. The clean delivery kits, meanwhile, contain supplies for use of a skilled birth attendant such as a midwife in cases of emergency births that take place outside a hospital or birthing facility.

Two medical teams, composed of doctors, midwives and other health workers, have been organized and ready to conduct reproductive health medical missions upon delivery of the RH kits and medical supplies. Youth volunteers, meanwhile, have been mobilized to organize young people in the evacuation centers to support the medical missions, monitor gender-based violence and conduct data collection for humanitarian response.

Equipment, supplies and records of at least 22 barangay (village) health centers that also serve as birthing clinics have been inundated. Women who have to give birth are referred to hospitals which are already swamped with regular patients.

Amid the chaos brought by the disaster, women and girls become more susceptible to gender-based violence (GBV) especially given the lack of privacy, use of common toilets and open bathing facilities in evacuation centers.

Results of the GBV audit already being conducted in Cagayan de Oro City, which is coordinated by the city health office, will be the basis for specific interventions to prevent GBV in evacuation centers and affected communities. A similar assessment will also be done in Iligan City.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development is currently conducting psychosocial counseling for survivors of the flood and is setting up an emergency referral system for survivors of GBV.

As part of prevention efforts, information sessions about GBV will be conducted as part of the RH medical missions. Coordination is being done for the immediate provision of additional latrines and bathing facilities in evacuation centers. Camp management committees will be set up to ensure that the protection needs of the evacuees are addressed, while local government units have been requested to provide regular security patrols within the vicinity of the evacuation centers.

Latest report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council tallies the number of population affected by the disaster at 92,964 families or 641,098 individuals.

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For more information, pls contact:
Ms. Florence Tayzon, Assistant Country Representative
Tel: (63-2) 901 0304 Mobile: (63) 917 859 3520 E-mail: tayzon@unfpa.org

Arlene Calaguian Alano, Information & Communication Officer
Tel: (63-2) 901 0306 Mobile: (63) 917 515 3559 E-mail: aalano@unfpa.org