Staying defiant in the face of disaster
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In May 2020, residents of the coastal districts of Bangladesh suffered enormous damage due to the super cyclone Amphan. The natural disaster affected 2.6 million people in 19 districts across Bangladesh, inundating their houses, killing their livestock and forcing them to flee. Like any large-scale disaster, cyclone Amphan was particularly harmful to the most vulnerable groups of the population, such as women and adolescent girls. It deprived them from their usual safety spaces, increasing their vulnerabilities to gender-based violence and hygiene-related challenges.
By July, UNFPA and its partner agencies and implementing partners launched a life-saving emergency relief programme to address the needs of over 200,000 women and adolescent girls living in the four most severely affected districts: Satkhira, Khulna, Barguna and Patuakhali. The project, funded by the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) stood on four main pillar
Safety and Dignity Delivered with Every Kit
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No matter where natural disasters occur, they foremostly affect the most vulnerable. Floods in Bangladesh are no exception. Each year when the monsoon season begins, its effect is evident on people’s inundated houses, drowned livestock and damaged infrastructure. However, some of its damage is often not visible at first glance. The less evident victims of the disaster are usually women and girls, who in its aftermath are threatened by lack of security, limited access to menstrual hygiene products and other vulnerabilities.
On 4 July 2020, when a high probability of severe flooding was forecasted along the Jamuna River in Bangladesh, UNFPA and its partner agencies adopted a new approach to disaster relief through the “Anticipatory Action Pilot” project. Instead of responding to the crisis after the destruction, the project, funded by UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and by Australia Aid (AusAID), provided aid to