Sunamganj is a district within the wetland ecosystem in northeast Bangladesh, which is especially susceptible to local weather change. Floods arrive rapidly and immediately and may final for weeks. They disrupt life, displace households and lower off entry to providers.
For the over 670,000 ladies 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 ladies to guard themselves and their youngsters in the course of 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, how you can put together and how you can shield 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 develop 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 attainable 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 Group initiative – supported by the UNFPA and the Swedish Worldwide Improvement Cooperation Company – which educates ladies 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 lady 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 – fully freed from value.”
© UNFPA Bangladesh
UNFPA Consultant Catherine Breen Kamkong (centre) meets Shakila Begum (proper, in inexperienced), a 26-year-old volunteer with the Local weather Resilience Well being System and Group Challenge in Sunamganj.
Empowerment by protected areas
The initiative additionally gives protected group areas the place ladies can study 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 corresponding to maternal well being, catastrophe preparedness and baby marriage prevention, with over 500 folks attending every efficiency.
Taskira Hauque Tazin, an area 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 assist underprivileged communities. By these performs, we elevate consciousness so that girls don’t fall behind. We need to cease early marriage, promote ladies’ training, 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.”
© UNFPA Bangladesh
Villagers collect for a day avenue drama in Bodipur, Kurban Nagar Union, Sunamganj, as a part of the Local weather Resilience Well being System and Group Challenge.
Anima Akhter, a 24-year-old mom in Kurban Nagarn, defined that the road dramas present a protected 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 baby safely on the hospital.
Amina’s husband, Nurul, now accompanies her to group periods and has develop into a task mannequin locally, receiving coaching from volunteers to show his neighbours about ladies’s and ladies’ well being.
“Since my spouse underwent coaching, I took it very severely and felt impressed to assist our neighbours, particularly regarding ladies’s and ladies’ well being,” he stated. “I usually discuss these vital 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.”
© UNFPA Bangladesh
Anima Akhter, 24, together with her husband Ruhul Amin, 30, a steelworker, and their two youngsters outdoors their dwelling in Bodipur village in Kurban Nagar Union.
Ongoing challenges
However challenges stay regardless of the most effective 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 ladies additionally nonetheless really feel disgrace discussing subjects like menstruation, and cultural norms usually prohibit ladies who try and generate their very own revenue.
These vulnerabilities confronted by ladies and ladies are exacerbated by climate-related disasters, which frequently hit them the toughest.
Continued commitments
From 28 to 31 July, world specialists 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 influence of local weather change on ladies and ladies. The occasion known as for gender-inclusive local weather negotiations and a renewed dedication to understanding the influence local weather change has on sexual and reproductive well being and rights.
Diene Keita, Appearing Govt Director of UNFPA, highlighted the gendered influence of local weather change on the occasion: “The proof tells us that local weather change is growing the chance of maternal mortality, disrupting entry to contraceptives and growing the chance of gender-based violence.”
“Our collective efforts must strengthen the resilience of girls, ladies and well being programs to face up to and adapt to local weather shocks,” Ms. Keita harassed. “Being ready, responding quickly, and constructing ahead higher should be central pillars for our work.”
