UNFPA, an international agency working in reproductive health, works with 12 partners on the field to deliver dignity kits containing sanitary pads, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels. These products allow women and girls to preserve their personal hygiene in the midst of disaster and displacement.
“Just as I would want my girls to be safe, I also want them to have access to basic hygienic needs,” said Hayat Merhi, a mother of three young girls whose family was devastated by the blast.
Pandemic, economic turmoil
The explosion and its effects came in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis. Job losses have limited family income, even though disease control is now more important than ever.
So often, the interests of women and girls are first to be overlooked.
UNFPA members have been supporting blast-impacted areas by providing dignity packages, communicating to women and girls about their situations. The work is daunting but satisfying, they claim.
“Bringing light into their shattered homes and reminding women and girls that their integrity, protection, and personal needs matter in these tough times, is the least we can do,” said Rima Al Hussaini, director of the Al Mithaq Association.
Life-saving information
The delivery of dignity kits is also an incentive to solve another issue: gender-based abuse, according to UNFPA.
Gender-based violence is likely to escalate in emergency situations especially in periods of economic hardship. In the wake of the pandemic, several countries are reporting increased abuse against women and growing requests for social services.
“It is really worth noting that dignity kits are beneficial to women and girls; not just for feminine hygiene supplies, soaps, and other things, but also as a way of reaching out to women and girls with key messages about sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based harassment, prevention of sexual assault, and abuse services,” said Felicia Jones, UNFPA Humanitarian coordinator.
Dignity kits provide contact information to better support survivors. People who distribute the kits are already qualified to provide such information.
“We have trained our team to explain how to use and maintain items in the package;” said Gabby Fraidy of the Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against Women. “We had 11-year-old girls coming to us, and our job was to explain to them about menstruation and clarify that it is a normal and biological phenomenon that happens and that it is part of growing up.”
Additional vulnerabilities
Akkarouna and Al Makassed organizations often provide integrity kits to disabled women and girls, who also encounter unique disadvantages and difficulties in accessing sexual and reproductive health facilities and resources.
It is believed that about 12,000 people with disabilities were infected by the epidemic.
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