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The ICRC cares for all the victims of conflict but it adapts this care to meet their needs. Specific services for women affected by conflict include support for rape victims, medical care for women in places of detention, antenatal and postnatal care for mothers and babies, the provision of hygiene requisites/training and rehabilitation for female mine victims.
See complete photo collection on ICRC website
ICRC/C. de Keyzer/V-P-CD-E-00689
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Yangambi. Woman in hospital.
REF:
ICRC/V-P-LR-E-00314/V. Baumberger
Liberia. Vezela clinic, Lofa county.
Women listen to a lecture during the
ICRC/Ministry of Health-supported
Trained Traditional Midwife programme.
These women have volunteered to undergo
a six-month training programme, learning
how to perform safe deliveries and about
when and where to refer high-risk
deliveries. Because of the low levels of
literacy among traditional midwives,
most of the training takes place in the
form of easy-to-remember songs, dramas
and plays. On graduating, each trained
midwife receives certificate recognized
by the ministry and a delivery kit
provided by the ICRC.
Liberia's civil war left rural areas
with few medical staff and functioning
medical facilities. The programme was
launched to help redress this problem.
REF:
ICRC/P. Yazdi/V-P-SO-E-00328
Somalia. Keysaney hospital, Mogadishu.
When Halima went into labour, she
discovered that Mogadishu's maternity
hospital had been shelled and was closed.
When her relatives got her to Keysaney
Hospital, she had been in labour for 24
hours and both she and her baby were in
critical condition. However, the ICRC-
supported staff were able to save her
life and that of her new-born son.
REF:
ICRC/B. Heger/V-P-SD-E-00866
Sudan. Camp for internally displaced
persons, Gereida. A Sudanese doctor
examines a pregnant woman.
Armed conflict can disrupt the normal
patterns of daily life, especially
access to health care. Pregnant women
and nursing mothers may have limited
antenatal and postnatal care, and little
or no medical assistance for the
delivery itself. This can result in more
women and babies dying during childbirth.
Additional barriers to health care can
include cultural restrictions, whereby
women have to be treated separately from
men, or only by women.
REF:
ICRC/P. Yazdi/V-P-UG-E-00285
Uganda. Arum Health Centre, Pader
district. Three hours ago, 24-year-old
Grace Akot gave birth to a little boy.
He is her third child, but the first one
to be born in a clinic. "I know it's
safer. And then it was really nice to
get the mama kit."
A "mama kit" includes a clean razor
blade for cutting the umbilical cord,
cotton, disinfectant, a nice cloth to
wrap around the mother after delivery, a
plastic sheet to protect the bed and,
most important, a high-quality towel.
Mama kits are distributed at ICRC-
supported health clinics in northern
Uganda, with the aim of ensuring a safe
and hygenic delivery.
REF:
ICRC/J. Barry/V-P-AF-N-00303-12A
Afghanistan. Kabul. An ICRC hygiene
promoter teaches hygiene awareness to
women living in the poorest parts of
Kabul.
The disruption of traditional living
patterns can have drastic consequences
for the availability, safety, and
privacy of hygiene and sanitation. Armed
conflict may aggravate economic
deprivation and extreme living
conditions, increasing the spread of
diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and
cholera.
REF:
ICRC/D. Sansoni/V-P-LK-E-00217
Sri Lanka. Kiran camp for displaced
persons, Batticaloa. A mother and
daughter welcome the arrival of ICRC
hygiene kits.
Hygiene kits generally consist of
personal items such as soap, shampoo,
and toothbrushes, plus general materials
like laundry soap, jerrycans, mosquito
nets and tarpaulins. Women are often
unable to obtain their usual sanitary
protection when displaced, so the kits
also include culturally-appropriate
sanitary towels.
REF:
A. Buzzola/V-P-KH-E-0073
Cambodia. ICRC physical
rehabilitation centre, Battambang. A
mine victim begins the long process of
learning to walk again.
Higher rates of illiteracy among women
and less contact with the public sphere
can mean that women and girls have too
little information about the threat of
mines. Female mine victims often have
less money than men in an otherwise
similar situation, and may well
encounter cultural restrictions on their
mobility. Both factors can prevent them
from obtaining artificial limbs and
using rehabilitation services. To help
make these services available to all,
the ICRC is currently running prosthetic
and rehabilitation programmes in 25
countries around the world.
REF:
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
