Sunamganj is a district within the wetland ecosystem in northeast Bangladesh, which is especially weak to local weather change. Floods arrive rapidly and immediately and might final for weeks. They disrupt life, displace households and reduce off entry to companies.
For the over 670,000 girls 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 girls to guard themselves and their youngsters throughout the subsequent flood.
Shakila Akhter, a 24-year-old mom of two, was eight months pregnant over the last flood.
“Because of the coaching I acquired, I knew what to hold, how you can put together and how you can 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 little one.”
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 at the moment are shorter.
“So, all of us ought to be ready to handle it to outlive.”
Native volunteers
This coaching is made doable 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 Improvement 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 lady 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.”
© 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 Mission in Sunamganj.
Empowerment by means of secure areas
The initiative additionally gives secure neighborhood areas the place girls can find out about 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 corresponding to maternal well being, catastrophe preparedness and little one marriage prevention, with over 500 individuals attending every efficiency.
Taskira Hauque Tazin, a neighborhood pupil, is among 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 girls’s empowerment and to assist underprivileged communities. Via these performs, we elevate consciousness so that ladies don’t fall behind. We need to cease early marriage, promote ladies’ training, and be certain 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.”
© UNFPA Bangladesh
Villagers collect for a day road drama in Bodipur, Kurban Nagar Union, Sunamganj, as a part of the Local weather Resilience Well being System and Group Mission.
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 regularly can’t converse.”
With the assist of native volunteers, Anima delivered her youngest little one safely on the hospital.
Amina’s husband, Nurul, now accompanies her to neighborhood periods and has turn out to be a task mannequin locally, receiving coaching from volunteers to show his neighbours about girls’s and ladies’ well being.
“Since my spouse underwent coaching, I took it very significantly and felt impressed to assist our neighbours, particularly regarding girls’s and ladies’ well being,” he mentioned. “I recurrently 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 girls’s deliveries and household planning strategies.”
© UNFPA Bangladesh
Anima Akhter, 24, along 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 one of the best 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 typically prohibit girls who try and generate their very own earnings.
These vulnerabilities confronted by girls and ladies 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 impression of local weather change on girls and ladies. 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, Performing Govt Director of UNFPA, highlighted the gendered impression of local weather change on the occasion: “The proof tells us that local weather change is growing the danger of maternal mortality, disrupting entry to contraceptives and growing the danger of gender-based violence.”
“Our collective efforts must strengthen the resilience of girls, ladies and well being programs to resist and adapt to local weather shocks,” Ms. Keita harassed. “Being ready, responding quickly, and constructing ahead higher should be central pillars for our work.”
