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Humanitarian Relief Efforts
Under normal circumstances, 15 percent of pregnant women need emergency obstetric care. In disaster and conflict situations, this number tends to go up as medical facilities and personnel become less available.
Prenatal care, assisted delivery and emergency obstetric care are among the many needs - particular to women - that must be addressed in in the aftermath of disaster or conflict. Many women lose access to family planning services, exposing them to unwanted pregnancy in perilous conditions.
Other special needs are often overlooked. In addition to needing food, water, shelter and medical care, women have particular hygiene needs, the lack of which affects their ability to line up for aid distribution. This is even more important because, in such situations, women typically bear the primary responsibility for the most vulnerable members of a community - children, the elderly and the sick.
Finally, the collapse of the community and the loss of the normal protection of family leave women especially suseptible to sexual abuse, trafficking and sexual exploitation.
From Afghanisan to Darfur, Myanmar, China, Haiti and Kyrgyzstan, UNFPA works to address the particular needs of women from health care to the prevention of violence against them.
You can support UNFPA's Humanitarian Relief Efforts through a targeted donation to Americans for UNFPA.