Women's reproductive health has been disrupted as a result of the psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, and affected women need additional medical and psychological support.
KATHMANDU, October 5: A project aimed at improving sexual and reproductive health and implemented by the Family Planning Association of Nepal has double achieved the targets.
Three districts in the Kathmandu Valley and two others: Kaverepalanchowk and Makwanpur were covered by the project implemented with the financial and technical support of the Japan Trust Fund. It is said during a period of two years that sexual and reproductive health services were provided to 71,125 adolescents and women.
The project will be ending this month. The project was successful in providing integrated sexual and reproductive health and HIV services to adolescents and women who survived the 2015 April earthquake and the recent Melamchi flood. In the flood affected areas of Melamchi, an integrated reproductive health camp was organised and ‘dignity kits’ to 80 women.
Screening of pelvic cancer, HIV testing and counseling, pregnancy, family planning, pathology services and counseling for the prevention of gender-based violence were provided through the camp.
The necessity of sexual and reproductive health services is unavoidable and its need is considered more significant during disaster. The FPAN in a press statement said that 1,200 people from the Chepang community of Makwanpur were the beneficiaries of the project. Among the service recipients, 24 percent are adolescents and youths.
More 200 service providers and ‘sathi’ teachers were given orientations on the topics with thorough training sessions. Similarly, public in the affected areas were educated and informed about it through radio programmes. The FPAN says it continues its services during COVID-19 pandemic with the adherence to safety protocols recommended by the World Health Organisaiton.
KATHMANDU, July 15: The Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN) organised an integrated reproductive health camp targeted to the people of Melamchi Municipality in Sindhupalchok district hit hardest by flooding.
At the health camp, services like tests for cervical cancer, HIV tests and counseling for pregnant women and against violence against women took place, said programme director of the FPAN, Subas Shrestha. Over 300 women availed health services from the camp, he said.
There are around 1,000 pregnant women at the municipality and Helambu Rural Municipality and they need health services at the earliest, he said.
On the occasion, the FPAN distributed contraceptives and dignity kits.
Programme officer Shrestha handed the materials to the municipality mayor Dambar Bahadur Aryal.
Meanwhile, the FPAN has continued to provide its services even during the COVID-19 pandemic by following the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.
It has been providing the services from its clinics loacted at various places of the country. It said it had provided the services to 3.3 million people in 2020 which is only 15 per cent less compared to the people served in 2019 when there was no COVID-19. FPAN has been providing free services to the excluded and marginalised groups, the geneder minorities, women sex workers, people with HIV/AIDS and the disabled persons.
Around 90 per cent of the FPAN's beneficieries are those who do not have access and among them 30 per cent are adolescents.
UNITED NATIONS, July 12: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for efforts to protect people's reproductive health rights as the world marks the World Population Day, which falls on July 11 annually.
"As we mark World Population Day, let us pledge to ensure the reproductive health rights of everyone, everywhere," said the UN chief in his message for the international day.
"The COVID- 19 pandemic continues to upend our world, reaching one grim milestone after another. In addition to the millions of lives tragically lost, there has been a less visible toll: a shocking rise in domestic violence as women were forced into isolation with their abusers; empty maternity wards as women postponed motherhood; and unintended pregnancies due to curtailed access to contraceptive services," said the secretary-general.
"Our latest estimates indicate that COVID-19 will push 47 million women and girls into extreme poverty. Many girls who are out of school may never return," the top UN official continued.
"In every corner of the world, we are seeing a reversal of hard-won gains and an erosion of women's reproductive rights, choices and agency. With the onset of the pandemic, resources for sexual and reproductive health services were diverted," he said.
"These gaps in access to health rights are unacceptable. Women cannot be alone in this fight," the secretary-general added.
World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the approximate date on which the world's population reached 5 billion people. World Population Day aims to increase people's awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights
