Today is World Health Day, which highlights the particular vulnerabilities faced by women and girls in crisis zones. This includes the estimated 2.4 million people in Ukraine — mostly women and girls — who are experiencing, or at risk of, violence.

Even after fleeing shelling, many women and girls still face ongoing risks.

Mobility restrictions, economic vulnerability, and displacement-related risks caused by over three years of conflict have eroded the safety of the most vulnerable living through the war. Economic hardship and a lack of safe housing turn shelters into potential sites of abuse, leaving displaced women and girls with little options. 

Women hold communities together, and we cannot ignore the emotional and social wounds caused by war.

During times of war and crisis, your support is a vital resource for women, girls, and their communities. Even in the most hard-to-reach areas, we can mitigate suffering in Ukraine through mobile health clinics, survivor relief centers, safe spaces, and more.

But major funding cuts threaten to cut off lifesaving care from Ukraine, impacting over 600,000 people. The long-term effects of these cuts are alarming, and we desperately need to fill this gap in our funding to continue our work on behalf of women and girls in Ukraine and around the world.

Survivors are at the heart of our humanitarian response. Your lifesaving gift will help us continue to be there for survivors of violence, deliver care to remote areas, and ensure that women and girls living through war aren’t forgotten. Please make a special lifesaving donation this World Health Day:

UNFPA strives to ensure all women and girls are able to live healthy and full lives. With your support, we can do everything we can in this period of chaos and uncertainty.

Thank you for being there.

— USA for UNFPA