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Tsunami survivors get United Nations assistance
 The
26 December tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people
and left millions homeless in coastal areas of India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand as well as parts
of Africa also created a reproductive health crisis.
Both ESCAP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have responded
to the tsunami disaster in ways reflecting their individual mandates
and areas of expertise.
For its part, the ESCAP secretariat has launched a variety of initiatives
to assist the tsunami survivors and the countries most severely
affected. For example, the Emerging Social Issues Division is seeking
to ensure that all social development aspects of disaster relief,
rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts take into consideration
crucial aspects such as access to health-care services, disability
issues, gender concerns and aspects concerning the elderly in order
to address the welfare of the communities affected by the disaster.
The expertise and experience of various sections of that Division
will ensure that the secretariat’s response to the tsunami
disaster will incorporate these crucial issues.
Some of the specific activities involve reorienting projects to
attain these goals and launching activities such as the setting
up of various electronic services to increase the flow of needed
information.
As part of its response, UNFPA immediately began providing contraceptives
along with equipment, medicines and supplies to ensure safe childbirth
and prevent sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. Among
the supplies are delivery kits, each of which includes soap, plastic
sheeting to lay on the ground, a clean razor blade for cutting the
umbilical cord, a piece of string for tying it, and cloth to wrap
the baby immediately after delivery.
At least 150,000 women in tsunami-affected regions are currently
pregnant or may be facing complications of pregnancy, in cluding
trauma-induced miscarriages.
Family planning services are important in the aftermath of natural
disasters, because they help to prevent unwanted pregnancies, avoid
pregnancies spaced too close together or dangerous pregnancies in
women who are too young or too old, as well as the transmission
of sexually transmissible infections, including HIV/AIDS.
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