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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
International Women’s Day: A call to support and protect women coping with the effects of conflict in Syria
By nternational Committee of the Red Cross / International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Mar 6, 2015 - 12:27:24 PM
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Diala is 25 years old. Married, she arrived in Darashakran camp, in Iraq, one year and half ago. Her baby was born five months ago – one of 100,000 Syrian babies born outside Syria since fighting began – with a UNHCR paper as a document.
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A joint statement by International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies:
As the world marks International Women’s Day
this Sunday,
the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement calls for greater
efforts to protect and support women and girls, who are exposed to
multiple forms of violence due to the conflict in Syria and who badly
need access to critical healthcare services. Women are playing a vital
role in helping families and communities survive this enduring trauma,
now entering its fifth year, and they deserve far greater support and
encouragement.
Examples of women’s coping power during crisis can be seen anywhere
people have found refuge from the fighting. At a makeshift settlement of
refugees in Ketermaya, Lebanon, for example, 14-year-old Nejmeh teaches
reading, writing, math and science to a lively group of young children.
This resilient young woman from the outskirts of Damascus offers these
open-air lessons as a small and positive distraction for young children,
some of whom have now spent half their lives fleeing the horrors of
war. “I hope that giving them an education will help them forget about
their problems and about losing their loved ones,” she explains.
Several hundred kilometres away, 44-year-old mother of four Kadija
struggles to provide for her family as a refugee in Erbil, Iraq, where
more than 80,000 Syrians live wherever they can find a welcoming roof:
in garages, unfinished buildings, informal settlements or small
apartments. “We are surviving because our Iraqi neighbours are cooking
at least two or three times per week for us,” says Kadija, a widow who
finds odd jobs to support her family. “But it’s not enough. Every day, I
must find a way for my children to survive.”
These are just two examples of women coping with the extreme hardship
caused by the four-year-long conflict in Syria, which has displaced
roughly 8 million people within the country and caused some 4 million to
seek safety elsewhere (mostly in neighbouring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and
Turkey). Among them are some 4 million women and teenage girls, many of
whom are now heads of household or breadwinners in families that have
lost husbands, fathers and/or sons.
Meanwhile, access to health care that is appropriate for these women and
girls is extremely limited just when their own health, and that of
their families, is particularly fragile.Nonetheless, women often serve
as the backbone of family and community resilience by keeping their
families healthy, nourished and whole.
“Women are absolutely pivotal in giving hope and ensuring that their
families continue to cope in the most challenging situations,”says
Tadateru Konoé, president of the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “We must take heed of their plight
and ensure that they are supported through all means necessary.”
One critical form of support is to ensure access to basic health
services. “Often, the greatest health impacts caused by conflict are not
the wounds inflicted by bullets and bombs, but the secondary health
effects caused by displacement, contamination of water supplies, poor
nutrition and the disruption of health services,” says Peter Maurer,
president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. “Along with
children, women suffer disproportionately as their health needs are
rarely met in the daily struggle for basic survival.”
Among the 12 million people who have fled their homes due to this
conflict, for example, roughly 500,000 are pregnant women who are at
risk due to malnutrition, lack of access to proper obstetric care and
other factors.
The Movement also calls on all parties to the conflict to respect and
protect staff and volunteers for National Red Cross or Red Crescent
Societies and other humanitarian organizations — many of whom are women.
Of the 40 Syrian Arab Red Crescent and seven Palestine Red Crescent
volunteers killed since the conflict began, three were women.
In their humanitarian operations in the region, the ICRC and IFRC work
with Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the affected countries to
provide a range of support from food deliveries, to cash cards for
buying food and supplies, to first aid, emergency medical transport,
health care and income-earning projects to help people once again
provide for themselves.
Where such support and protection is available, many men and women have
been able to take greater control of their lives. One such example is
Siba, a mother and head of household who fled fighting in northern Syria
to Turkey. “I had to help my family, so I took Turkish lessons,”
explains Siba. “After seven months, I started working for a telecom
company and then in a hospital as a translator.”
In the face of any crisis or disaster, the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement is committed to further empower women to respond to their own
needs and to prioritize the protection vulnerable women and girls in
countries and communities around the world.
For more feature stories, photos and video testimonies:
http://www.icrcproject.org/
app/syria-women/
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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