The Foreign Secretary has announced new funding to tackle the
sexual and reproductive healthcare crisis in Gaza. The £4.25
million in UK aid will help ensure UNFPA, the United Nations
sexual and reproductive health agency, can provide life-saving
support to vulnerable women and girls.
This support is expected to reach about 111,500 women, around 1
in 5 of the adult women in Gaza. It will support up to 100
community midwives, the distribution of around 20,000 menstrual
hygiene management kits and 45,000 clean delivery kits.
Foreign Secretary confirmed the additional
funding in response to a UN flash appeal for the Occupied
Palestinian Territories.
Women and girls are particularly at risk from disease, pregnancy
complications and gender-based violence in Gaza currently, with
85% of people displaced and currently just 13 out of the 36
hospitals partially functional, with one specialist maternity
hospital functioning.
Foreign Secretary said:
Women are bearing the brunt of the desperate humanitarian
situation in Gaza today. Many thousands of women are currently
pregnant and will be worrying about delivering their babies
safely.
This new UK funding will help make giving birth safer and improve
the lives of mothers and their new-born babies.
We need to see an immediate pause in the fighting so we can
secure the safe release of hostages, get more aid in, and allow
organisations like UNFPA to do their vital work effectively.
UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Natalia Kanem, said:
In Gaza, the reality for women and girls is horrific – and
getting worse each day. They have little to no access to
essential health services and menstrual supplies, and many are
forced to give birth in unsafe conditions that put their lives
and those of their babies at risk.
The support of the United Kingdom and other partners is vital to
get lifesaving resources directly to women and girls in desperate
need.
UNFPA is providing life-saving reproductive health supplies for
women and girls in Gaza. Since the most recent crisis began,
UNFPA has provided nearly 74,000 adolescents and children with
psychosocial support and financial support for over 2,000
vulnerable women at risk of gender- based violence to
purchase essential menstrual and hygiene items.
There were an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza at the
start of the crisis, with more than 180 births occurring each day
and over 5,500 women expected to deliver in the next month.
The UK has trebled our aid commitment to the Occupied Palestinian
Territories this financial year and we are doing everything we
can to get more aid in and open more crossings, including calling
for an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out.
Israel must take steps, working with other partners including the
UN and Egypt, to significantly increase the flow of aid into Gaza
including allowing prolonged humanitarian pauses, opening more
routes into Gaza and restoring and sustaining water, fuel and
electricity.
