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Women Survivors of Tsunami Need Urgent Help

Among the five million people affected in the tsunami-devastated Asia, there are at least 150,000 women who are currently pregnant or who may be facing pregnancy complications and need urgent medical and nutritional support. IPPF staff in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and the Maldives are already on the ground doing all they can to care for women and girls in need. But some of our members in these countries have suffered destruction and lost staff – at least two of our clinics in the stricken province of Aceh were washed away and they are in urgent need of help in both the immediate emergency aftermath and for longer term rebuilding of their communities.

Conditions are appalling - a lack of food, clean drinking water, and shelter, combined with the destruction of clinics and hospitals, and the injury and death of doctors, midwives, and other key staff make giving birth dangerous and frightening. According to the UN, roughly 50,000 pregnant women will go into labour in the next three months.

In addition to the dangers posed by waterborne diseases, hunger, and exposure to the elements, media sources (see links below) are now reporting that women and girls are at high risk of violence, including rape and other forms of sexual harassment in the chaos that's followed the destruction. Emergency contraception will emerge as a critical need as women in the camps become vulnerable to sexual exploitation and we can provide for this if funds and supplies are available.

Please help our associations in South and Southeast Asia provide desperately-needed reproductive and maternal health care for these women by making a secure online donation.