Urgent need to save women, girls on the front lines

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 23 April 2018–The United Nations and the European Union will host a Syrian Crisis Donors Conference in Brussels this week to raise funds to help millions of people affected by the Syria conflict.

Around 13.1 million people inside Syria need immediate assistance, including 4.2 million women and girls of childbearing age, half a million of whom are pregnant. In addition, some 1.5 million women and girls live in areas with limited aid available, and about 359,000 have recently fled their homes to escape violence in Idlib, Eastern Ghouta and Afrin.

“Years of violence and widespread destruction across the country have caused profound upheaval and trauma for the affected women and girls,” said Laura Londen, UNFPA’s Deputy Executive Director (Management). “In addition to the conflict-related hardships they endure, these women are deprived of their basic right to sexual and reproductive health services. The global community must support their special needs, and UNFPA will remain on the ground to ensure their reproductive health and rights in this prolonged crisis.”

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is working to reduce maternal death and prevent gender-based violence inside Syria and other crisis-affected countries. The Fund has set up mobile reproductive health clinics and primary health services that offer a full range of reproductive health care to reach the most vulnerable women and girls. These go hand-in-hand with safe spaces, where women and girls can take refuge from, and be treated for, gender-based violence.

UNFPA requires $144.1 million to meet the urgent needs of more than 6.2 million women and girls affected by one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA reaches millions of women and young people in 155 countries and territories.

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For more information, please contact:

In New York, Jeffrey Bates, +1 212 297 5208, bates@unfpa.org

In Cairo, Tamara Alrifai, +20 1 227 512450, alrifai@unfpa.org