Baghdad, Iraq, 23 September 2017 – As the West Anbar military efforts started, the urgent humanitarian needs of internally displaced women and girls continue to escalate. To meet the needs of these women and girls, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with the generous contribution from the Government of Japan, supported the establishment and running of two new delivery rooms in Rutba and Baghdad sub-district of Haditha, Anbar. A mobile Reproductive Health (RH) team has also been deployed to the transit site in Rutba. These locations are the first receiving sites of IDPs from West Anbar. The facilities serve an estimated catchment population of 150,000 persons.

With these new facilities, UNFPA is currently supporting 31 reproductive health facilities in Anbar. These include facilities in and out of camps and include RH clinics, delivery rooms and maternity hospitals. UNFPA also supports 5 women community centres in Anbar, where women and girls can interact with each other and express their needs and concerns comfortably and also receive psychosocial support services. This support ensures that life-saving reproductive health and protection services are available to the women of Anbar. Japan supports most of these RH facilities and women community centres in Anbar.

H.E. Mr Fumio Iwai, Ambassador of Japan to Iraq said, “In an effort to advance inclusive assistance to the vulnerable people including women and girls, the Government of Japan will continue to support the humanitarian and stabilization efforts in Iraq in order for them to be taken care of adequately.”
      

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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, delivers a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
Sahand Mohammed (samohammed@unfpa.org)