Defending girls’s well being in Bangladesh — World Points

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

For the over 670,000 girls of reproductive age residing 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 girls 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 last flood.

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

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 out to be longer, sudden floods are extra frequent, heatwaves have intensified, and winters are actually shorter.

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

Native volunteers

This coaching is made attainable by volunteers skilled 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 Group initiative – supported by the UNFPA and the Swedish Worldwide Growth Cooperation Company – which educates girls on subjects 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 beginning,” she recalled. “I suggested her household to go to the native hospital, the place she safely delivered – utterly freed from price.”

Empowerment by secure areas

The initiative additionally presents secure neighborhood areas the place girls can study sexual and reproductive well being.

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

Taskira Hauque Tazin, a neighborhood scholar, is likely one of the shifting 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 ladies’s empowerment and to assist underprivileged communities. By these performs, we elevate consciousness so that ladies don’t fall behind. We need to cease early marriage, promote women’ training, and make sure that girls get entry to maternal well being care,” she mentioned. “Whether or not it’s within the solar, rain, or storm – we’ll maintain doing this work for the individuals.”

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 assist of native volunteers, Anima delivered her youngest youngster safely on the hospital.

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

“Since my spouse underwent coaching, I took it very severely and felt impressed to assist our neighbours, particularly regarding girls’s and women’ well being,” he mentioned. “I usually speak about these essential 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 girls’s deliveries and household planning strategies.”

Ongoing challenges

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

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

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

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

Continued commitments

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

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

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

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