UN population fund seeks funds to aid Palestinian women
Palestine, Economics, 5/7/2002

Responding to the current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has appealed to donors for $3.6 million to fund an eight-month assistance plan aimed at providing reproductive health services to vulnerable Palestinian women and girls.

Violence in the region has prevented medical personnel from reporting to health facilities and blocked ambulances from reaching those in urgent need of care, according to UNFPA. The agency noted that women in labor had been delayed at checkpoints, resulting in unattended roadside births and even deaths of some mothers and infants.

Even before the recent escalation, one fifth of pregnant women in Gaza and the West Bank could not receive prenatal care because of the difficulty of traveling through checkpoints to health facilities, UNFPA said, pointing out that the situation has since been exacerbated the Israeli army's reoccupation of major cities.

The agency's new effort will focus on helping women in labor who may be unable to reach a hospital because of military activity, curfews and travel restrictions. Other aspects of the UNFPA plan include helping rebuild the Palestinian Authority's capacity to collect economic and demographic data, funding activities aimed at preventing gender-based violence, and assisting centers providing trauma counseling for women and their families.

Since September 2001,UNFPA has been providing emergency assistance to the area, including medical supplies and reproductive health commodities. The new push for funding envisages providing hospital equipment such as delivery beds, critical care ventilators and ultrasound machines.

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