In Gaza, a stunning 900,000 people have fled Rafah in the past month. Among the evacuees are 18,500 pregnant women, all of whom have extremely limited access to essential maternal health services.
The situation is even more dire for the 10,000 pregnant women who cannot evacuate Rafah and are surviving nightmare conditions.
Over the weekend, the last hospital in Rafah went out of service, leaving these women stranded without care. Three temporary field hospitals remain partially functional in and around Rafah City, but they are difficult to reach due to the hostilities, are overwhelmed with patients, and can only provide basic services due to a lack of resources.
Emergency gifts from donors like you ensure that UNFPA can be a constant in the lives of these women by delivering basic essentials and lifesaving healthcare.
So we’re appealing to you today: Will you rush a gift to deliver sexual and reproductive health care to women and girls in Gaza and wherever help is needed most?
Pregnant women in Rafah are fatigued, traumatized, malnourished, and lack even the basics for survival.
Maternal care is critical for the survival of mothers and babies caught in this conflict as childbirth complications have skyrocketed with stress, fear, hunger, and exhaustion.
They face an impossible situation. How does a woman who has just given birth carry her newborn baby for miles, traversing rubble and massive crowds, likely still bleeding, all without knowing where she will sleep, if she and her family will be safe, or where she will find her next meal or sip of water?
But how does she stay put as her world crumbles around her?
Thanks to your dedicated support, UNFPA is working to make sure — no matter what they choose — they can access maternal health care even in the most dire of situations.
UNFPA has provided 50,000 sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls in the past two months, and has delivered supplies to support more than half of ALL births in Gaza since conflict erupted.
The work is not over, and our Humanitarian Response Fund in Gaza is still less than 50% funded. Will you make a gift to deliver lifesaving care to women and girls living in crisis zones like Gaza?
We condemn the violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel, and echo the UN Secretary-General’s call for a sustained humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages by Hamas. The suffering must end and peace must prevail.
Thank you for being there.
— USA for UNFPA