Solomon Islands: Madeleine has been through cyclones, droughts, floods and conflict. She knows how to survive and keep her family safe when disasters strike. During the tensions in her country, Madeleine and her family fled to the forest and lived there for years to avoid the checkpoints and armed groups near the city of Honiara. Peace has returned but the lessons remain and Madeleine and her family practice resilience by growing multiple crops and ensuring there are emergency supplies of water and medicine always on hand.
Bangladesh: Farmer and day labourer Sirajul Islam with his wife Ruksana Begum and their four-year-old son Rabiul in front of a raised homestead where the family took shelter after floodwaters submerged their house in July 2020. @UNICEF/UNI351915/Chakma
Phillippines: Cagayan de Oro in Northern Mindanao Region after a tropical storm.
Indonesia: The evaluation of the Regional Prepositioning Initiative found that the project: as enabled quicker, more cost-effective responses. In Indonesia, UNFPA’s response was three times faster, and cheaper, with prepositioning.
Papua New Guinea: Fiona, 28, stands with Silver Star, her one-year-old son, outside makeshift tent where they have been living since a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on 26 February 2018 destroyed their home in nearby Daga village, in Pimaga, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday 14 March 2018. "My house fell down in the middle of the night,” says Fiona. “Sometime after three in the morning, we woke up because the earth was shaking. We all escaped but now our house is broken.” She tells a visitor what she most needs is a private shelter, because she’s sharing floor space with about 60 other people whose homes were destroyed. “I want a private tent for my family,” she says. “We also need food and a mosquito net. I cannot go to the mountain to look for food. It is too hard. And I am still afraid to go to the higher areas, so that is why we stay down here, where it is low.”
Sri Lanka:
Bangladesh: Kameena Islam blames freak weather for the death of her infant son, Shahnawaz. After the baby fell ill with a fever, she wrapped him in a plastic sheet and battled through an intense downpour towards the local hospital in Umedpur. The journey took more than an hour. When she arrived, she discovered to her horror that Shahnawaz had died in her arms.
Indonesia
Indonesia: Through the initiative UNFPA has complemented nationally-led responses, built the capacity of local partners, and provided technical support that has acted as a catalyst for change in policies and regulations.
Prepositioned supplies have been customized based on feedback received from women and girls during humanitarian crises.
Prepositioning can provide value for money by reducing transport and procurement costs.In just two years, UNFPA saved a quarter of a million dollars by transporting supplies by sea rather than air, and procuring supplies through cost-effective long term agreements.
Indonesia
Papua New Guinea:
Myanmar,: A girl studies for a school examination at the Phan Khar Kone IDP camp in Bhamo city, Kachin State.
Myanmar: A woman spoon-feeds a bowl of rice porridge fortified with a multiple micronutrient powder (MNP) to her child, who has a disability, at a Mothers’ Circle project site in Naungkalar Village in Thaton Township in Mon State. Mother’s Circles – home-based play groups comprised of parents and children – provide health, nutrition and other care and support for children up to age 3 whose parents work long hours and are unable to spend enough time with them.
Kiribati: A health worker uses a traditional foetal stethoscope to monitor the heart rate of 20-year-old Taabwai's baby during an antenatal exam at Bairiki Health Centre in Tarawa, the capital. The clinic offers antenatal care, growth monitoring, vaccination, Vitamin A distribution, iron supplementation for pregnant women and other health services.
Papua New Guinea: Helen is 90 years old and she lives in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. She holds a photo from when she was just 18 with flowers in her hair. Back then, Hanuabada was a fishing village and the capital felt far away. 70 years on, urbanisation has consumed her village and brought many challenges like overcrowding and plastic waste. In countries like PNG where health and sanitation services are already stretched thin, it's often the elderly who suffer most when disasters hit.
Tonga: Kalasia works with Ma’a Fafine Moe Famili to support vulnerable mothers and children in Nuku'alofa, the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga. Kalasia makes weekly visits to vulnerable mothers and people with disabilities Ma’a Fafine Moe Famili uses a uniquely Tongan, community-focused approach to inclusive early childhood development and women’s support, and it’s groups like this that play an essential role in disaster relief planning because of their intimate knowledge of how to reach vulnerable people with disabilities. @UNFPA/Rose
Sri Lanka: The RPI has positively influenced Governments to prioritise sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services in emergencies.
Indonesia:
Government partners said that the initiative is responsive to the priorities in their national response plans.
Myanmar: Government Midwives attend obstetrics training at Hlaing Thar Yar Hospital in Hlaing Thar Yar Township in the city of Yangon.
India: Frontline health workers on the way for community health sessions in hard-to-reach villages through a wire rope- hanging bridge, at Pongging village in India’s north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Indonesia
Myanmar.: A rainy day in the camps under COVID-19 lock-down, Maina IDP camp, Waingmaw, Kachin.
Indonesia
Myanmar: When not playing with friends, 9-year-old Mai Ra helps her mother with kitchen work and family chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes while her mother Lahtaw Seng Hkawn works tailoring masks for a petty extra income to support the family, at Pa La Na IDP camp on the outskirts of Myitkyina, Kachin, Myanmar.
Bangladesh: Farmer Nurul Haque stands near his 13-year-old daughter Munni Akter on Kutubdia, a low-lying island in Bangladesh. Rising sea water around the island is engulfing farmland and leaving farmers landless and impoverished, forcing them to work as day labourers. Haque, a farmer whose entire land is now under water, says he may have to pull his daughter out of school and marry her off to an older man because he has few financial options left. “I don’t really want to marry her off, because it’s not good for girls,” says Haque, “But I’m considering it.”
Myanmar,: A girl collects water from a well at the Sin Tet Maw camp for internally displaced persons in Rakhine State.
Indonesia
Tonga