| UNFPA in the News: Week of June 7-13,
2003 Al Bawaba (Middle East) reported
June 12 that a new shipment of
emergency reproductive health supplies, intended to meet the
urgent
needs of Iraqi women, arrived in Baghdad on June 9, 2003. The
supplies,
provided by UNFPA, were dispatched on a UNFPA/UNICEF convoy that
crossed
the border from the Iranian city of Kermanshah. Read: Al Bawaba Business Line (India) reported on June 9 that
women workers in
Bangladesh's factories who get pregnant either lose their jobs
or are
forced to abort. These women are forced to keep pregnancies secret
and
not allowed a break even if they are strained or unfit for hard
work
during the early stages of pregnancy. According to a UNFPA healthcare
center, only 52 factory women came for pregnancy tests in June
2002.
Though 31 of them were pregnant, no one returned for follow-ups. United News of Bangladesh reported on June
7 that the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare organized a workshop in collaboration with
Japan
International Cooperation Agency and UNFPA. About 120 participants
from
government, NGOs, development partners and persons in charge
of
midwifery training are expected to attend the workshop. The workshop
will help develop need-based training curriculum in midwifery
for the
Family Welfare Volunteers. Working to improve birth spacing and maternal
health services, UNFPA and
the Ministry of Health signed a two-year funding agreement worth
nearly
$3 million, according to a June 12 story by The Cambodia Daily.
Mam Bun
Heng, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Health said, "Concerted
efforts to further promote safe motherhood activities need to
be made if
the maternal mortality rate is to decrease from the current level." Through
the upcoming project, UNFPA aims to ensure that birth spacing
and safe motherhood activities will remain a vital part of primary
heath
care services at the district level, said Yoshiko Zenda, UNFPA's
representative at the signing ceremony. To this end, UNFPA funds
will be
utilized by the Ministry of Health's reproductive health program,
regional training centers and provincial departments of planning,
Zenda
said. "The budget will be used for provincial hospitals
and health
care," added Mam Bun Heng, "more midwives will be trained
[to provide
for] safe motherhood." On June 10, Accra Mail reported that a study
conducted by UNFPA shows
that everyday 15,000 new HIV infections occur globally. Infection
rates
continue to rise among youth and knowing that most of the sexually
active youth in Ghana are not ready to abstain, churches have
been asked
to refrain from any actions that might hinder the cause of incorporating
condom use into the crusade against HIV/AIDS. Condoms provide
a
necessary option for those who cannot abstain from sex. "It
is not that
[the Ghana AIDS Commission] is not interested in getting the
youth to
abstain from sex. There should be enough encouragement to the
youth to
live up to expectation for the benefit of themselves, the society
and
the nation as a whole." Read: Accra Mail (Ghana)
The M2 Presswire reported June 10 that with
conflict in Monrovia
worsening an already immense humanitarian crisis, with devastating
health consequences for women and girls, is becoming graver. "The
situation in West Africa demands urgent action", said Thoraya
Ahmed
Obaid, UNFPA's Executive Director. "War-affected women across
the
sub-region are in dire need of counseling, skills training, health
services...UNFPA aims to help women and girls regain control
of their
lives." Read: Accra Mail (Ghana) Straits Times (Indonesia) featured a June 12
story on Dr. Nafis Sadik
who ran the 1994 Cairo conference on population and development,
fending
off foes from the American anti-abortion lobby and the Vatican
to
conservative Islamic governments. It mentioned that at 73, Dr.
Sadik
remains articulate and passionate, and is known to be a person
that gets
the job done. For that reason, she was appointed as Special Advisor
to
UN's Secretary General Kofi Annan and as his special envoy for
HIV/AIDS
in Asia and the Pacific, when she retired as Executive Director
of UNFPA
in December 2000. Empowering women, she says, and educating both
men and
women about preventing HIV infection are key interventions needed
to
reduce women's risk of infection. On June 8, The Monitor reported that the Nnabagereka
of Buganda, Sylvia
Nagginda has asked parents to keep girls in school in an attempt
to
advance the literacy campaign for girls. "Education is the
key to one's
future. Our duty as parents is to educate girls," she said.
The high
drop out rate of girls is resulting in many girls becoming pregnant.
Last year Ms. Nagginda launched the Nabagereka Trust Fund, a
project to
champion the rights of girls countrywide. An official from UNFPA
called
for responsible parenthood stating, "you must produce children
you can
ably provide with basic needs." The New York Times ran a June 12 letter by
Megan McKenna of Women's
Commission for Refugee Women and Children who wrote: "Survivors
of
gender-based violence are often identified through reproductive
health
services, and it is by way of these programs that their trauma
is
addressed. Without these services and the recognition of the
basic
rights that underpin them, the world's most at-risk population
would
lose basic protection and care; this would have a devastating
effect on
efforts to eliminate violence against them." McKenna mentioned, "The
United States has been withdrawing its support for international
reproductive health services for women worldwide; the retraction
of $34
million in financing for the United Nations Population Fund last
year is
just one example." Read: New York Times Women's Enews' June 13 story on pro-choice
groups organizing a march
during the 2004 presidential campaign also mentioned that one
of the
president's first acts in office was to reinstate a so-called
gag rule
preventing international family planning workers supported by
U.S. funds
from counseling on or advocating for abortion rights. Last year,
the
Bush administration cut the entire $34 million U.S. contribution
to the
United Nations Population Fund, which the administration said
supported
coercive abortions in China, an unproven allegation. Read: Women's
Enews The Washington Post mentioned June 9 that although
the Bush
administration killed $34 million in funding for UNFPA last year,
a
couple of women refused to take no for an answer. Independently
of each
other, Lois Abraham of Taos, N.M., and Jane Roberts of Redlands,
Calif.,
started an e-mail campaign aimed at raising private money to
make up for
the loss in federal funding. According to the story, their pitch:
Get 34
million Americans to each give $1 to the United Nations. Nine
months
later, they've raised $1.2 million. Read: Washington Post On June 9 The Herald reported that the Zimbabwe
National Family Planning
Council received a vehicle and drugs worth over $50 million from
UNFPA
as part of the organization's support of adolescents' sexual
and
reproductive health. UNFPA also gave an undisclosed number of
bicycles,
which will be used with the vehicle, to reach different program
sites.
The drugs, to treat STDs, will be distributed to five different
districts where the program has been implemented. The project
was
started in 2000 and has reached 16 districts and has trained
200 nurses
and 240 peer educators around the country. Read: The Herald Participants at a leadership conference on
gender, reproductive health
and HIV/AIDS issues in Zimbabwe advocated for the creation of
a
conducive environment to facilitate women's enjoyment of their
human
rights and reinforcement of their participation in national development,
according to a June 11 story by Xinhua General News Service.
The
conference was jointly organized by the United Nations Population
Fund
of Southern Africa, the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Employment
Creation and the Manicaland Governor Oppah Muchinguri.
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