Alarming levels of gender-based violence continue in Haiti, but survivors and people at risk face very limited access to essential support due to insecurity, logistical challenges and funding shortages, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned.
Financing gap
Due to budget cuts, the UN and its partners were only able to reach seven percent of the 833,000 people they intended to help, Dujarric reported.
The response remains underfunded, with a total shortfall of $13.5 million, 70 percent of the more than $19 million needed for this year.
Despite these limitations, between January and February, the UN and its partners expanded rescue services, reaching the most affected, through more than 32,000 awareness-raising sessions. Some 560 frontline workers also received training.
WHO warns of lack of support for survivors
Many girls and women who survive gender violence around the world are disappointed when they seek medical help, often because there are no systems in place to provide them with what they need, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
In a new report from the UN agency’s European office, it is said that almost three in 10 women and girls over the age of 15 will suffer physical and/or sexual abuse across the region.
Health services “are often the first (and only) point of contact for survivors”, yet key assistance, especially urgent post-rape services and access to safe abortions, is not provided, the WHO maintains.
Based on data from 53 European countries, only seven offer safe abortion services, the agency found.
The policies implemented are key
WHO’s Melanie Hyde said that when you look at the different needs of survivors of sexual assault, only 40 per cent of Member States in the European region have such provisions enshrined at policy level: “What we found is that if it’s not in policy, then it’s not going to be on the frontline.”
The WHO calls this a public health crisis that has a significant negative impact on people in terms of their physical and mental health, but also on families and society.
Youth Activist Summit Celebrates Hope Above Hate and “Humanity Above Hostility”
Finally, some good news comes from a youth summit held in Geneva on Thursday, where activists have been sharing their positive stories of change, which have helped tens of thousands of people around the world.
Among the inspiring people at this year’s Youth Activist Summit was Marina El Khawand, who created a global platform for surplus medicines from scratch.
He made the decision after the deadly Beirut port explosion in 2020, when he was struggling to find prescription medication for an elderly survivor who needed it to breathe properly.
good samaritan
Marina’s lightbulb moment came after she searched several pharmacies without success, before asking for help on her social media account.
Within hours, a stranger donated 12 boxes and it wasn’t long before her online platform, Medonations, was born, she said. UN News:
“In the moments when I took the first box of the 12 in my hand, she cried because she saw her basic right to health, which is her medication. That is the only thing that can keep her alive and breathe as if it were the happiest and the saddest moment.”
Young people leading the change
Marina shared her story at the summit alongside four other young activists from Brazil, Ivory Coast, India and Japan, all with their own solutions to drive global change.
Representing the UN, communications chief Melissa Fleming urged the young audience and all those online to transform the noise and negativity of social media into action, creativity and hope.
“Movements don’t start with institutions, they start with individuals,” he said, before encouraging everyone to register their actions on the United Nations Act Now Campaign app, as 28 million people around the world have already done.