Mali's central and northern regions have been plagued by in recent years. Terrorist groups have taken control of many remote villages, causing mass displacement, while maternal mortality rates are up to 35 times higher than in developed countries. Access to maternal health services is nearly impossible. In this complicated scenario, the United Nations Population Fund () is equipping the maternity ward at Sominé Dolo Hospital in the Mopti region. UNFPA partner sends mobile health units to rural areas of Mopti to reach women and girls with essential services and transport critical cases to health centers.
UNFPA
Survivors of female genital mutilation advocate tirelessly to end the harmful practice, empowering communities and challenging entrenched cultural norms.
Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Svetlana and her family had to leave their home in Odessa and seek refuge in the coastal town of Zatoka. When the bridge across the Dniester Estuary was attacked, they decided that Svetlana had to take the children to Moldova while her husband Ruslan stayed behind due to martial law. They have now been separated for 20 months and share how they maintain their family life and love across the border.Throughout Ukraine and neighboring countries, the United Nations Population Fund's () Safe Spaces provide expert psychosocial support to people coping with the effects of war and displacement.
takes swift action in response to critical medical shortages in Northern Gaza, with Representative Dominic Allen emphasizing the urgent situation.
Two years into the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a hospital near the front line is saving the most vulnerable citizens – babies born into war – with state-of-the-art incubators that can transport newborns between facilities and into bomb shelters at the sound of air-raid sirens. At the Zaporizhzhia Regional Perinatal Centre, the new incubators – provided with support from and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation – are equipped to maintain optimal temperature, humidity and oxygen levels, allowing babies to be moved safely. Despite the challenges, UNFPA and its partners continue to support Ukraine to strengthen the delivery of maternal health and gender-based violence prevention and response services, reaching more than 879,000 women, girls, men and boys with such services in 2023.
One year on, reproductive health and protection services have yet to fully recover. Many women and girls still remain in temporary shelters – in both – where risks of violence, sexual exploitation and abuse have soared, and where access to services and support to prevent and respond to gender-based violence are limited.
Post-childbirth complications such as have agonized women in Senegal, yet and partners are aiding women to reclaim their dignity and rebuild their lives.
The incubators at Al-Helal Al-Emirati Hospital in Gaza are filled with babies who have lost their parents. Learn about this tragic situation from two doctors at the hospital and see how is taking action.
Some 1.5 million people – including tens of thousands of pregnant women, new mothers and newborns – are now crammed into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, in a desperate search for safety amid war. Tightly packed with nowhere to go, they find the prospect of further military operations in Rafah terrifying. With bombs falling and just a trickle of aid, a public health disaster is worsening. Everyone in Gaza is hungry, including 50,000 pregnant women. and partners are providing support in this devastating crisis, but it’s not enough, as they do not have the access required to support all women in need.
The only hospital in Yemen's Bani Saad district serves around 20,000 people who have to travel on foot or by camel for hours to reach it. Pregnant women take this journey to access skilled birth attendants, but home births are also risky due to a lack of qualified help. Yemen's healthcare system is devastated by nine years of civil war, leaving fewer than half of the country's hospitals functional, and only one in five can provide maternal and newborn services. The United Nations Population Fund’s () appeal for funding to sustain programs for women and girls in 2023 was only 57% funded by the end of the year, which has severe consequences for women and girls in Yemen. With a fully funded appeal, UNFPA would be able to support more health facilities, improve the health outcomes for women and girls, and reduce preventable deaths.
More than 200 million girls and women today are survivors of female genital mutilation, a procedure that involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for no medical reason. Female genital mutilation was outlawed in Kenya in 2011. While it's vital that the practice is banned, women- and survivor-led movements like Women Rising are key to driving real change. This community initiative includes a forum for mothers who have endured the practice and their daughters who will be spared.
Aspy Kamsing, eagerly anticipates graduation as she looks forward to pursuing her passion for midwifery, amid a rising demand for trained midwives in Laos underscored by 's acknowledgment of a shortage of nearly 1 million midwives globally.
The Ardamata clinic supported by , reopens in Sudan, providing critical support for some 300,000 people, both those displaced within Sudan and from host communities.
Dr. Zuria Alberto is the leader of a mobile health team that operates in Cabo Delgado, the northernmost province of Mozambique. In this region, there are approximately who are displaced and living in difficult conditions due to climate crises and poverty. The mobile health workers travel by land or sea to reach women and girls living in rural and island areas of the province who may not have access to healthcare otherwise. The mobile team, supported by the (UNFPA), provides a comprehensive range of sexual and reproductive health services. This helps to reduce the risk of unwanted pregnancies, maternal mortality, and gender-based violence.
From the newly created field hospital in Gaza, is committed to providing them with much-needed support and supplies.