Supporting Women and Girls After the Nepal Quake

A year after two devastating earthquakes struck Nepal, UNFPA has gone deeper than addressing only its direct consequences. UNFPA’s work ensuring the health and dignity of women and girls after the disaster has begun to correct long-term issues of gender-based violence.

As in most crisis settings, the earthquake increased rates of violence; however, abuse was already pervasive before the quake hit, while the resources for women experiencing it were scarce. As part of its response, UNFPA helped establish 14 Female Friendly Spaces in the districts hardest hit. Over the past year, these 14 facilities have reached more than 410,000 women. 

“As the fabric of society broke down, insecurity and violence against women went up,” says Giulia Vallese, UNFPA’s representative in Nepal. “The deeper work to tackle the attitudes and beliefs that fuel violence against women is just getting going, and there’s far more to do.” UNFPA’s Female Friendly Spaces provide shelter as well as physical, emotional, and psychological support for victims of sexual and gender-based violence.

“We faced a lot of resistance when we started all this,” says a member of Nepal's Women’s Human Rights Protection Network, a UNFPA partner. “I was threatened, and many men thought we would make their lives more difficult by helping women think differently. But after they came here, they started to understand and to work with.”

In addition to Female Friendly Spaces, UNFPA has provided the following services:

• 132 reproductive health camps provided services and supplies to over 104,000 people.
  
  
• 80 birthing facilities that were destroyed during the earthquake were rehabilitated so mothers can give birth safely and receive the post-natal care they need.
  
  
• Over 56,000 Dignity Kits were provided to women and girls in earthquake affected areas. The kits include clothes, sanitary napkins, towels, washing materials, and a flashlight.

Links:

• How the response to Nepal's earthquake strengthened resources

In the aftermath of humanitarian disasters, incidents of sexual and gender-based violence increase. To support victims of violence after the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal in April 2015, UNFPA sought to establish 13 Female Friendly Spaces. Female Friendly Spaces are an essential resource as gathering places for women, but in many instances they also serve as primary residences.

All 13 of the planned Spaces have been established. Between April and September of 2015 they were used to assist 40,000 women and girls throughout the areas of Nepal most-affected by the earthquake. Specifically, 283 survivors of gender-based violence were treated. UNFPA also trained and mobilized 12 psychosocial counselors, 14 case managers, and 65 psychosocial first aid volunteers.

UNFPA has also worked with district health officials to operate mobile health camps, which provide life-saving healthcare including antenatal and postnatal checkups, safe delivery services, family planning, HIV testing, psychosocial support, and gender-based violence management. UNFPA has operated 121 mobile camps so far, which are open in a particular location for three days at a time. The concept of “Dignity First,” also developed into a public awareness campaign by UNFPA, has served as a cornerstone in all of UNFPA’s post-earthquake recovery work in Nepal. Dignity First reminds the humanitarian community that women and girls require special attention and that their dignity needs to be preserved and respected. UNFPA promoted this campaign and its underlying concept while actively involved in inter-agency and government-led work.

Links:

• UNFPA's work in Nepal