Pregnant women struggle to find care after Pakistan's floods

Pregnant women struggle to find care after Pakistan's floods
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Shakeela Bibi who is pregnant stands beside her tent at a relief camp for flood victims, in Fazilpur near Multan, Pakistan, Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Shazia Bhatti)
Pregnant women struggle to find care after Pakistan's floods
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Pregnant women wait their turn for a checkup at a clinic setup in a tent at a relief camp for flood victims, in Fazilpur near Multan, Pakistan, Sept. 24, 2022. (AP)
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Updated 17 October 2022

Pregnant women struggle to find care after Pakistan's floods

Pregnant women struggle to find care after Pakistan's floods

RAJANPUR: The first five months of Shakeela Bibi’s pregnancy were smooth. She picked out a name, Uthman, made him clothes and furniture. She had regular checkups at home and access to medicine. Then an ultrasound revealed the baby was upside down. The doctor told Bibi to take extra care and rest.
And then came this summer’s massive floods. Bibi’s home in the southern Pakistani city of Rajanpur was inundated.
When she spoke to The Associated Press last month, she was living in a camp for displaced families. With her due date approaching, she was afraid over the possibility of a breech birth with almost no health care accessible.
“What happens if my health deteriorates suddenly?” Shakeela said. She has a blood deficiency and sometimes low blood pressure, but she said she can’t have a proper diet in the camp. “I’ve been in a camp for two months, sleeping on the ground, and this is making my situation worse.”
Pregnant women are struggling to get care after Pakistan’s unprecedented flooding, which inundated a third of the country at its height and drove millions from their homes. There are at least at least 610,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas, according to the Population Council, a U.S.-based reproductive health organization.
Many live in tent camps for the displaced, or try to make it on their own with their families in flood-wrecked villages and towns. Women have lost access to health services after more than 1,500 health facilities and large stretches of roads were destroyed. More than 130,000 pregnant women need urgent care, with some 2,000 a day giving birth mostly in unsafe conditions, according to the United Nations.
Experts fear an increase in infant mortality or health complications for mothers or children in a country that already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia. They also warn of dangerous, long-term repercussions for women, such as an increase in child marriage and unwanted pregnancies because of the disruptions in the lives and livelihoods of families.
Rasheed Ahmed, a humanitarian analyst at the U.N. Population Fund, said the health system was already poor before, and he warned now of “death, disability, and disease” if the health of pregnant women is ignored.
“The biggest shortage is female health care workers, medical supplies and medicine,” he said. “Resources are another challenge. What are the government’s priorities? Are they willing to spend the money?”
At camps in the flood-hit towns of Fazilpur and Rajanpur, pregnant women told the AP they had received no treatment or services for their pregnancies since arriving at the camps nearly two months ago. Clinics handed out medicines for minor ailments, but nothing for mothers-to-be. The next day, after the AP visited a local medical center to alert their plight, female health workers went to check on the women and distribute calcium sachets and iron supplements.
Shakeela Bibi and her family eventually left the camp, taking their tent with them and setting it up close to their wrecked home. Authorities gave them a month’s worth of flour, ghee, and lentils. She is now past her due date, but doctors have assured her that her baby is fine and don’t think she will need a Caesarian.
Perveen Bibi, an 18-year-old who is five months pregnant and not related to Shakeela, said the lack of health facilities in the camp forced her to travel to a private clinic and pay for an ultrasound and check-up. But she was prescribed medicine she can’t afford to buy.
“I used to have a good diet, with dairy products from our livestock,” she said. The family had to sell their livestock after the floods because they had no place to keep them and no way to feed them.
“We need female doctors, female nurses, gynecologists,” said Bibi, who has one daughter and is expecting a boy. She had a son around a year ago, but he died a few days after his birth. “We can’t afford ultrasound or IV. We’re just getting by.”
In the camps, families of five, seven or more eat, sleep, and spend their days and nights in one tent, sometimes with just one bed between them. Most sleep on floor mats. Some survivors only have the clothes they fled in and rely on donations.
Outdoor taps are used for washing clothes, washing dishes, and bathing. The pregnant women said there were shortages of clean water and soap. They were scared of infections because of open defecation at the camps. A bathroom was set up, but it has no roof and tents surround it.
Amid the devastation, organizations and individuals are doing what they can — the UNFPA is delivering supplies for new-born babies and safe delivery kits across four flood-hit provinces.
A Karachi-based NGO, the Mama Baby Fund, has provided 9,000 safe delivery kits, which include items for new-borns, across Sindh and Baluchistan provinces, as well as antenatal and postnatal check-ups for 1,000 women. The Association for Mothers and Newborns, also based in Karachi, has provided more than 1,500 safe delivery kits, mostly in Sindh.
Ahmed from the UNFPA says pregnant women have different needs to the rest of the displaced population, needs that aren't being met by state efforts.
“The government’s response is very general, it’s for the masses. It’s about shelter, relocation," Ahmed said. “I’ve heard about women miscarrying because of mental stress, the physical stress of displacement and relocation,"
The health crisis triggered by the flooding will reverberate among women because it will take long to rebuild health facilities and restore family planning, according to Saima Bashir from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
“Women and young girls are very vulnerable in this situation,” said Bashir. She pointed to increasing reports of child marriage.
Even before the floods, 21% of Pakistani girls were married before the age of 18, and 4% before the age of 15, according to U.N. figures.
The rate is increasing for several reasons. Some parents marry off their daughters as a way to obtain financial support from the boy's family so they can rebuild their homes. Others fear for the safety of their girls in displaced camps and believe marrying them off will protect them from abuse or secure their future. Also, the destruction of schools in the floods closes off other options; some girls who would have gotten an education or possibly gone on to work will stay at home instead.
In the next few years, those girls will get pregnant, Bashir said, especially given limited access to contraception.
“There will be more unwanted pregnancies,” she said. “This is ... compounding this crisis, and it’s adding to the population.”

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  • Ukraine is also offering potential cooperation in IT, e-governance

MANILA: Ukraine is planning to attract Filipino workers to help rebuild its cities ravaged by Russia’s invasion, Kyiv’s envoy said on Wednesday.
Russia began a multipronged attack on Ukrainian territory and major cities in February last year, destroying critical infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of homes, and forcing more than 8 million people to flee to neighboring European countries.
The country’s reconstruction is expected to stretch over at least 10 years, costing $411 billion, according to a World Bank report released last week.
As leaders lay postwar plans, Denys Mykhailiuk, chargé d’affaires of the Ukraine Embassy in Malaysia, which holds jurisdiction over the Philippines, was on a four-day trip to the archipelagic nation to explore potential cooperation.
He told reporters in Makati City that talks would soon be initiated regarding Filipino workers helping in the reconstruction effort as “whole cities (were) wiped out.”
He added that “hardworking Filipinos” and investors from the country “will be very much welcomed.”
Ukraine is also planning to increase bilateral trade and open an embassy in the Philippines later this year, Mykhailuk said, describing the Southeast Asian country as a “priority nation” in the region.
“Unfortunately, since the war started, they have a drop of 94 percent in bilateral trade. We want to remedy (this), and we proposed to our partners of the Republic of Philippines several ways to do so,” Mykhailuk said.
Kyiv, a major exporter of wheat, has offered to help Manila build a “grain bank” and work together in information technology and e-governance, the envoy said.
Mykhailiuk’s visit comes about a month after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had their first phone call, during which the two leaders discussed how to further bilateral cooperation.


Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development

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Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development

Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development
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  • Dhaka seeks sister city relationship to learn Riyadh’s best practices

DHAKA: The Bangladeshi capital wants to establish a sister city relationship with Riyadh to follow its development practices, the local administration said on Wednesday, after a meeting with the Saudi ambassador in Dhaka.

A megacity of more than 22 million people, Dhaka is one of the most densely populated built-up and unsustainable urban areas in the world. It has been struggling to handle its rapid expansion and waste management.

Riyadh, on the other hand, is undergoing rapid modernization under Vision 2030, with vast investment into infrastructure and digital solutions making it the third-smartest city among the capitals of the Group of Twenty states, and the 30th smartest city at global level, according to the 2021 Smart City Index of the IMD World Competitiveness Center and Singapore University of Technology and Design.

The possibility of Dhaka’s partnership with Riyadh was raised on Tuesday, during Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Al-Duhailan’s meeting with the Dhaka North City Corp., which governs around 80 percent of the Bangladeshi capital.

“Both Dhaka and Riyadh are capital cities. Riyadh is considered one of the smart cities in the world. We want to follow the best practices of that city,” DNCC Secretary Mohammed Masud Alam Siddique told Arab News.

Dhaka’s sister city relationship with Riyadh would enable the exchange of know-how and best practices. Such ties are long-term partnerships promoting joint cultural, research, and development projects between two geographically and politically distinct localities.

“If a sister city agreement is in place, it would become easier to exchange ideas and boost cooperation,” Siddique said.

“Our councilors, city corporation officials, could receive training in Riyadh, especially on waste management, traffic management, mosquito control ... During the discussion (with the Saudi ambassador), the issue of waste management was on the table. The ambassador explained the waste management systems of Riyadh, and we were interested in this.”

As the Saudi capital has much of its services for residents digitalized, Dhaka is keen to follow in its footsteps under Bangladeshi’s own development vision.

“Our prime minister has the vision to build a smart Bangladesh by the year 2041. To achieve this target, first of all, we need to build smart cities,” Siddique added.

“In Riyadh, any citizen can avail of any service from the city corporation sitting at home through a mobile phone. We want to adopt this system.”

So far, Dhaka has such an agreement with only one other capital, Lima, the largest city in Peru.

To develop sister ties with the Saudi capital, top officials from Riyadh and Dhaka would have to agree on terms to facilitate cooperation.

“We will send a proposal soon. Once they accept it, a memorandum of understanding will define in which areas we are interested to work together,” Siddique said. “We hope it will be possible by the next two to four months.”


Humza Yousaf sworn in as Scotland’s leader as bid for unity falters

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LONDON: Humza Yousaf was sworn in as Scotland’s new leader on Wednesday in a ceremony that blended formal tradition with his Pakistani heritage before he announces appointments to his cabinet that risk worsening the deep divisions in his governing party.
Yousaf, the first Muslim to lead a democratic western European nation, was dressed in a black shalwar kameez at Scotland’s highest court, the Court of Session in Edinburgh, as his family watched on.
The 37-year-old pledged an oath of allegiance to King Charles. He has previously said he wants to replace the monarchy with an elected head of state if he achieves his dream of ending Scotland’s three-centuries-long political union with England.
Yousaf narrowly won a leadership race on Monday after a bruising contest that followed the surprise resignation last month of Nicola Sturgeon, who had dominated Scottish politics for almost a decade.
The internal disagreements over the future of the pro-independence Scottish National Party and the country re-emerged after Yousaf’s main rival, Kate Forbes, quit the government.
Forbes turned down an offer to become the minister for rural affairs and islands, a step down from her previous role as finance minister, according to the BBC and Scottish newspapers.
Former health secretary Alex Neil, who backed Forbes, said the proposed post was “an insult and not a real effort to unite” the party.
Yousaf had been expected to offer his leadership rival, whom he only defeated by only about 2,000 votes, a more senior role.
During his leadership campaign, Yousaf had said he would depart from Sturgeon’s “inner circle” style of leadership in favor of a “big tent” approach.
Forbes, who had questioned Yousaf’s record in government during the leadership campaign, posted on Twitter a reminder of the closeness of the contest, while saying Yousaf had her “full support.”
Yousaf said on Tuesday that Shona Robison — a close friend of Sturgeon — will serve as his deputy first minister. More appointments to cabinet roles are expected on Wednesday afternoon.


UN nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuclear plant amid safety concerns

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Updated 31 min 21 sec ago

UN nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuclear plant amid safety concerns

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  • Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived by car at Europe's largest nuclear power plant to review the situation there
  • Grossi wants to assess first-hand the "nuclear safety and security situation" and press on with efforts to broker a deal to protect the plant

KYIV: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog visited the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday as part of efforts to avert the risk of an atomic accident.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived by car at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to review the situation there, an IAEA spokesperson said.
Grossi wants to assess first-hand the “nuclear safety and security situation” and press on with efforts to broker a deal to protect the plant.
“I am not giving up in any way. I think on the contrary we need to multiply our efforts, we need to continue,” Grossi told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
In Moscow-held territory, he told Russian news agencies that the situation at the plant had not improved, that fighting nearby had intensified and that he wanted to come up with realistic ways to reduce the threat of a catastrophe.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the site of the power station over the last year. Grossi has been pushing for a safety agreement between Ukraine and Russia to protect the facility.
A Reuters reporter at the Russian-held plant saw a motorcade transporting the IAEA expert mission arriving at the facility, escorted by the Russian military.
Grossi told Reuters in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Tuesday that the situation at the plant remained “very dangerous” and “very unstable,” noting that military activity in the region had increased in recent weeks.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, has been pressing a winter offensive in the east, while Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive using Western-supplied battle tanks and fighting vehicles.
The sprawling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was a prized part of Ukraine’s energy network and accounted for around 20 percent of national power generation before the Russian invasion.
It has not produced any electricity since September, when the last of its six reactors was taken offline.
Ukraine’s Energoatom nuclear agency said Grossi would assess how the situation had changed at the plant, speak to workers and also act as a “guarantor” for the rotation of a group of IAEA monitors at the facility.
The IAEA has had monitors stationed at the plant since September, when Grossi traveled to the facility as fears were mounting of the possibility for a nuclear accident.
It is Grossi’s second visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant since it was captured by Russian troops.
Grossi, who met President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, says his attempt to broker a deal on protecting the plant is still alive, and that he is adjusting the proposals to seek a breakthrough.


UK’s international aid hindered by asylum-seeker spending: report

UK’s international aid hindered by asylum-seeker spending: report
Updated 35 min 39 sec ago

UK’s international aid hindered by asylum-seeker spending: report

UK’s international aid hindered by asylum-seeker spending: report
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LONDON: A report has criticized the UK government’s use of its aid budget on supporting asylum-seekers in Britain, saying it has led to its ability to respond to international crises becoming “very limited.”

Up to a third of the budget, nearly £3.5 billion ($4.3 billion) per year, is now being spent domestically, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact said, adding that this had made intervention and spending on aid overseas “less efficient.”

Small boat crossings in the English Channel, combined with refugee schemes for people fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan, were highlighted as occupying a significant portion of the funds.

The ICAI added that the Home Office, which deals with asylum-seekers in the UK, had no incentive to increase oversight or efficiency on domestic spending as the money was coming from the budget of another department, the Foreign Office.

The foreign aid budget was significantly reduced under the UK’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who cut it from 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product to 0.5 percent.

That has led to the Foreign Office having to stop “non-essential” spending, the ICAI warned.

“This was seen in the limited UK response both to devastating floods in Pakistan in August 2022, and to the worsening drought in the Horn of Africa, which is expected to lead to widespread famine in 2023,” the ICAI report said.

The chair of the House of Commons’ International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, said the report “reaffirms that our valuable aid budget is being squandered as a result of Home Office failure to get on top of asylum application backlogs and keep control of the costs of asylum accommodation and support contracts.”

An earlier report issued by the committee suggested countries suffering from disasters such as Pakistan, Turkiye and Syria were being “short-changed” by “political choices” made by the government.

Champion added: “It is time for the UK government to get a grip on Home Office spending of the aid budget so that we can return to the real spirit of aid spending — spending that should promote and target the economic development and welfare of developing countries.”