UNFPA rushes supplies to flood affected pregnant women

Responding to the worst flood to hit Pakistan since 1929, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has rushed supplies to help with childbirth, as well as the health and hygiene of displaced people, particularly pregnant women and infants.

The flood has killed hundreds, according to official estimates, and left an estimated 3 million people homeless and traumatized. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone, the worst-affected province, the Government officially reports a death toll of around 800, with some 100 people still missing. Several badly hit districts, including Lower and Upper Dir, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, are still inaccessible to humanitarian agencies.

United Nations agencies have begun providing relief assistance to thousands of affected families using emergency response funds.

To meet the needs of internally displaced persons in several flood-affected districts, UNFPA is delivering reproductive health and medical supplies, such as delivery kits, as well as hygiene kits for women.

“UNFPA aims to ensure the availability of emergency reproductive health kits in heavily hit provinces,” says Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, Chief of UNFPA’s Humanitarian Response Branch. “As the monsoon season has just started, there could be more floods in the coming weeks.”

In consultation with the provincial health department, UNFPA has started assessing the flood’s impact on health facilities. Based on these assessments, the Fund will deploy two mobile service units in Nowshehra and Charsadda Districts.

An estimated $350,000 additional funding is needed to address the urgent reproductive health needs of the affected communities for the next three months.