Did You Know UNFPA Plays a Critical Role in Humanitarian Settings?

Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban and the destruction caused to Haiti by a 7.92 magnitude earthquake have created two simultaneously unfolding humanitarian situations. Rachel Moynihan, Advocacy and Communications Specialist at the United Nations, sits down with us to discuss the work that UNFPA does to support and expand access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for populations in humanitarian settings, and how UNFPA is assisting in Afghanistan and Haiti specifically.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency founded 50 years ago. UNFPA has three goals: 1) to end the unmet need of voluntary family planning; 2) to end preventable maternal deaths, and 3) to end gender-based violence. UNFPA is active in over 150 countries and territories, working in multiple humanitarian settings. UNFPA is able to gather the political will to address the reproductive health and rights needs of people in humanitarian settings while also providing critical on-the-ground services, supplies, and care.

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate disasters have further stressed the ability for UNFPA to reach populations that may be in need of sexual and reproductive health care, menstrual products, and protection from gender-based violence. Lockdowns, layoffs, and inability to attend school have increased rates of abuse, child marriage, female genital cutting.

In 2018, 1600 women per 100,000 were dying in childbirth Afghanistan, leading UNFPA to train 35 young women in the Gorom Harat region to become maternal midwives. Now, that rate hovers around 600. While that rate is still high, it’s lowering is due to safe maternal care and delivery services largely supported by UNFPA programming. UNFPA has also established 171 “family health houses” that provide 24/7 maternal health care in Afghanistan. If you’d like to hear more about the impact the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan may have on women and girls, you can find our recent podcast episode here.

On August 14th, a 7.92 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on the same fault line that caused a similarly devastating earthquake ten years prior. This earthquake, in the shadow of the pandemic, a recent presidential assassination, and consistent food insecurity and gang violence, has compounded the country’s humanitarian crisis. Over 200,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake, with 10,000 injured. Because hospitals have experienced severe damage, UNFPA has rushed supplies into Haiti, set-up mobile teams and distributed reproductive health kits.

Episode photo credit: UNFPA Haiti/Samuel Laméry Pierre

Links from this episode

UNFPA on Facebook
UNFPA on Twitter
Sign up to advocate for UNFPA's work or donate
Learn about UNFPA's work in Afghanistan
Learn about UNFPA's work in Haiti
List of Texas Abortion Funds

Transcript

Jennie: Welcome to rePROs Fight Back, a podcast where we explore all things reproductive health, rights and justice. I'm your host, Jennie Wetter, and I'll be helping you stay informed around issues like birth control, abortion, sex education and LGBTQ issues and much, much more-- giving you the tools you need to take action and fight back. Okay, let's dive in.

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Jennie: Welcome to this week's episode of rePROs Fight Back. I'm your host, Jennie Wetter, and my pronouns are she/her. So y'all, I don't know about you, but I am still pretty furious, to be frank, about the Texas law being allowed to go into place. It is just infuriating that, that, that the Supreme Court let this happen. I am just utterly heartbroken for the people of Texas who need abortion care and are no longer able to get it. I'm recording this on September 2nd, with the hope of maybe taking some downtime this weekend and you know, not having to focus on all of this as much. I think with the court decision, that kind of changes everything, but, you know, hopefully I can step away for my mental health, but, but today, today, what I am thinking of is the people who had an appointment today to get an abortion are no longer able to get one. You know, it's not so simple to say, well, they can just go to another state to access the care they want at clinics. And other states can’t handle this kind of overload for all the people in Texas to come and try and get care. And then that's only for the people who are able to travel, right? You're talking about people having, I think they said the average now is 227 miles-- having to travel 227 miles to get basic health care. And what does that mean for people? That's a long trip. Many of them will need to find childcare, take days off of work. Like, this is an insurmountable barrier for so many people. This is just devastating to so many. And I worry a little bit that we're losing sight of that. You know, the media, one, hasn't been doing a great job covering this, right? They are not covering it as what it is, which is the Supreme Court basically overturning Roe v. Wade, Roe v. Wade said that you had the right to an abortion through viability. And this completely flies in the face of that, right? A six-week abortion ban is way before viability. And I think one of the things we saw happening in the conversations around this ban being enacted yesterday is that people don't quite understand what weeks of abortion mean or weeks of pregnancy means. So, six weeks pregnant means six weeks since your last menstrual period. So that means you are two weeks late. That is before most people know they are pregnant. So, by the time you know you're pregnant, it's too late. You can no longer get an abortion in Texas; that is just devastating to people. I just, it's not being covered as an overturning of Roe. The people I feel like are getting a little lost. I think advocates are doing their best to talk about what this is going to mean for people on the ground. But the media is already turning to like the next political chess move, right? Like what are Democrats going to do? And that's important. But in that conversation, we also need to be talking about what this means for people, because people are why this is so important. Um, I just, it, it breaks my heart. I, I think it's just really hard to, yeah, it's just really hard to think about right now. I feel for all these people, and I know so many people don't know what to do and they want to take actions right now.

Jennie: So, you know, I think some of the things that are at the moment helpful are speaking out, right? Making sure people know about this, making sure that people know what you feel and why you think this is important. Those are all really important, making sure your congresspeople know that you think this is really important and that something needs to be done to ensure that people have the right to access abortion and the ability to access it. We've always talked about Roe being not enough that we need things like the Hyde amendment repealed so that people can afford to access abortion care. So, it's not just that they can't get it because there's a six week ban. Maybe they can't afford it too. So, like all of this together, we also need to talk about who this is going to impact, right? So, people who have money are going to be able to travel out of state and easily access the care they need. This is going to have a huge, disproportionate impact on low-income people, Black and brown people, young people, the LGBTQ community, like these are the people who are going to see just terrible impacts from this heinous law. So, make sure that you're lifting that up. The other really important thing right now is we always talk about the importance of donating to abortion funds. And right now, Texas abortion funds really need our support. And so, we'll make sure we include in the show notes, a full list of Texas abortion funds. And we'll share it out on social media as well. You know, I'll try and shout out some of them here. I, you know, I'm sure I won't get everybody and I'm sorry, but we'll have the things on, on the website. So, the Lilith Fund, the Texas Equal Access Fund, Jane's Due Process, the Whole Women's Health Alliance, West Fund Texas, the Clinic Access Support Network, the LA Frontera Fund, the Buckle Bunnies Fund and the Afiya Center, the Bridge Collective, and Fund Tennessee and Texas Choice. So we'll have links to them on our website and we'll definitely be sharing things on social, but, you know, make sure you donate to abortion funds. If you are able, that is something I have been doing in my rage. I have donated to a number of them. Um, there is also a link going around where you can donate in one place and it will be divided between, I think, nine abortion funds. So that is also a great option, you know, do what you can, if you can't donate, that's fine. Make sure you're speaking out. It's kind of all hands-on deck right now. I think. Yeah, just do what you can. So I think that's kind of where I wanted to end.

Jennie: And maybe just one thing that I think lifted me up a little bit today, um, you know, it was really devastating the way this all went down with the Supreme Court, doing nothing and letting it go into effect. And then the next day coming out with their opinions where it was a 5-4 vote with five justices voting for it, allowing it to go into place with Justice Roberts joining the liberals on the court to say that, well, we need to hold up and take a closer look at this. So one thing that really, I don't know if fired up is the right word, but really spoke to my anger a little bit this morning when I, when we're recording is reading the beginning of Justice Sotomayor's dissent. And so I'm gonna read a little bit of it here. Sorry. We're just gonna read the first paragraph, but I think it's important. “The court's order is stunning, presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny. A majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand last night, the court silently acquiesced to a state's enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents today. The court belatedly explains that it declined to grant relief because of procedural complexities and the state's own invention because the court's failure to act rewards tactics designed to avoid judicial review and inflict significant harm on the applicants and on the women seeking abortions in Texas. I dissent.” I just thought it was a really strong opening to her descent, talking about how they're throwing out precedent and just… this is so blatantly unconstitutional and that people are going to have real harm. It was really important. And to, I think it shows that there is a fight ahead and you know, just always remember, this is not the end. It's the beginning. We're going to keep fighting until everyone is able to access the care they need, no matter their ability to afford it. Like we're going to keep fighting until everyone has able to access abortion care. Don't worry. The fight goes on. Today is a dark day, but the fight goes on. And with that, I know it's kind of a bleak start to the podcast y'all, but like I said, I'm feeling rage and heartbreak still. So it needs to be out there. We will be covering what's happening in Texas more fully. Don't worry. We'll do an episode. I'm hoping an emergency episode next week, that we'll dig into this, but there will be one soon that talks about it more. If you want to see more about the Texas law before it was knackered, you can go back to episodes in our feed and you'll see one where I talk to the amazing Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group and Boom! Lawyered, and hear us talking about the law and why it was so important before it went into place. You can also check out Boom! Lawyered. They did an amazing episode dissecting this and why this is so terrible. So yeah, check them out as well, but we will be doing one soon. And with that, let's turn to this week's interview. So, switching gears a little bit, we're going to focus on a global issue instead of domestic, we are talking about the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and it was actually one of the very first episodes we did. And it's been a while since we've talked about UNFPA. So I wanted to make sure that we are talking about them for one, they do really important work, but two, they do really important work in humanitarian settings, and there's a lot of humanitarian crises happening right now. And so we wanted to talk about you and UNFPA their work in humanitarian crisis and some specific ones. So, we talk about what UNFPA is doing right now in Afghanistan and Haiti. And so, joining for me for that conversation is the wonderful Rachel Moynihan at UNFPA’s DC office. So, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Rachel.

Jennie: Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for being here today.

Rachel: It's a pleasure, Jennie. Thank you very much for having me.

Jennie: So before we get started, do you want to take a quick second and introduce yourself and include your pronouns?

Rachel: Absolutely. Um, my name is Rachel Moynihan. My pronouns are she and her.

Jennie: I am so excited to have you on one of the very first episodes we did of the podcast, I actually talked to your boss, Sarah, all about UNFPA, but it's been a while since I've done a deep dive on UNFPA specifically versus having them come up tangentially. And so many issues that y'all work on that we talk about those issues right now. It does feel like a really important time to talk about UNFPA, the work you all do, especially in humanitarian settings. There's a lot going on right now and you all are involved in so many areas that are super important. So maybe we should start at the very beginning. And what is UNFPA?

Rachel: Absolutely. So first of all, I couldn't agree more with your point, Jennie, that there is a lot going on in the world right now, and we're just delighted to be on here talking to you. And we were delighted to be one of your first, and so happy to be back. So, thank you again for speaking with us again, and just a quick intro to what UNFPA is. UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund is the UN sexual and reproductive health agency. And we were founded just over 50 years ago with the leadership of the US government and a lot of other governments that came together around population issues. And today our three goals are simple. The first goal is to end the unmet need for voluntary family planning. Our second goal is to end preventable maternal deaths. And our third goal is to end gender-based violence. And within that frame, we consider things like child marriage, or child, early, and forced marriage and FGM, which is female genital mutilation. We consider those forms of gender-based violence. So those are harmful practices that we would also like to see ended. Those are our main three goals. We're very proud of our work; we're active in just over 150 countries and territories, including, as you mentioned earlier, as you alluded to earlier, in most of the humanitarian settings that you are reading about in the news today.

Jennie: So I think that brings us to what work does UNFPA do in humanitarian settings? You talked about these really important goals you all work on, but I think when it comes to top of mind, when people are thinking about humanitarian settings or crisis is like food, water, shelter, but UNFPA is really doing important work there as well.

Rachel: No question, totally agree with you there. The first things you think of when you think of a crisis is exactly what you said. It's getting food to people. It's getting water to people, it's getting shelter to people, but really when you think about any crisis and you think about the things you see on the news, you know, think about flipping through the news right now, and you see some of the most heart-wrenching images on the news. What do you see you think about images of young children, images of babies, images of maybe a pregnant woman and expectant woman who's on her way from, you know, who's fleeing from a humanitarian situation, whether it's manmade or natural and she needs care too. So, I will say that UNFPA is core work meeting the needs of, of expectant women meeting the needs of young people, meeting the safety needs of women and children. Those are right up there with food, water, and shelter. And unfortunately, something that we've noticed is that those things are often the first featured and the last funded, they're the first featured on the news or the, the, the images that tug at your heart strings or the stories that really break your heart just from the human perspective. But when it comes to funding those or finding a political will to meet the needs, to meet the reproductive health needs, specifically of women to meet the safe delivery needs of expectant women, to meet the gender-based violence prevention, complexity, you know, of, of actually thinking about, uh, thinking about and planning for those things, oftentimes the political will dries up or the money has run out or that's considered an add on. And I would just fundamentally disagree with that. So, where UNFPA comes in to answer your question is on two fronts. Number one is, is gathering that political will, is being at the table. Like I said, in 150 countries and territories and working with those governments or the leadership and power to say “you all should be funding us as well. This is in your own best interest to look out for the rights and for the protection of the women and girls in your own communities, because that's a measure of how well your society is going to do overall.” When the parents of a child are fed and educated, their children are much more likely to be fed and educated, and that has positive ripples throughout your community, throughout your society throughout the country. And then conversely, when those aren't met, that starts a downward spiral. That's very hard to recover from. Um, so that's the first, the first place, where was the sort of political area. And then the, just the service delivery is, is what we're doing on the ground. We are not just a normative agency, which has to say we don't just talk about these things. We, we talk about those things, but we actually do these things as well. So we, as a UN agency, are with our partners that most of our listeners have probably heard of, or with the World Food Program and the World Health Organization and with UNICEF and we pre-positioned supplies all over the world so that supplies can get to especially vulnerable areas in a very, very short period of time, medical supplies, supplies that include things like menstruation products that again, don't necessarily come top of mind, but are very essential when it comes to a woman being able to move and access humanitarian assistance and to remain clean and dignified. So, we pre-positioned supplies. We are in countries before, during and after a crisis. That's the reality, that's sort of the comparative advantage of being with the UN is that we're often there before a crisis happens for there, during, and through the crisis. And we're there afterwards to help rebuild afterwards.

Jennie: Yeah, I think that's so important. You're right. It's often the first pictures that are used during a crisis, but it's really important to think about, people don't stop being pregnant just because there is a crisis. People are still delivering babies and some of those other issues, we work on like gender-based violence or child marriage, they all tend to go up during humanitarian crises. So, there is already a need there and it can often grow.

Rachel: That's exactly right. And that's something that we've seen, especially in light of COVID, which is in the background of all of this. And, you know, to, to think about these crises happening today. It's, it's all in the background of COVID it's in the background of increasing climate-related natural disasters that are just exacerbated and intensified with the intensive damage to the climate that we, as the world have done. So, increasing, you know, hurricanes and earthquakes and things like that are all contributing to it, a real exacerbation of a crisis, wherever it is. And you're exactly right. Jennie, when you say that these issues, the need only goes up during a crisis. So, a really good example of we put out some research, right? When the COVID crisis started, I believe it was either in March or April, 2020, when these movement restrictions began and we got to ourselves, what does that really mean for, for instance, somebody who is experiencing gender-based violence, when they are restricted movement out of their home, they may be kind of locked down with their abuser, for lack of a better word. There may be increased stress in the home because of layoffs because of financial issues. And that's not unique to any one country, to any one socioeconomic class, to any one race or gender, that is universal. And so we put out a call very early on in the crisis to say, not only was the need there before, but it's only going to go up. And I would just add it, with school shutdowns due to COVID. A school is often a girl's place to get food, obviously to get education, and in a lot of ways to be protected from harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation and child, early, and enforced marriage. So, if she is no longer in school, which is, yes, it's a vehicle for education, but it's a vehicle for so much more for her to pass through adolescence safely and successfully. She doesn't have that protection measure. Those other issues of child marriage… you see pregnancy within marriage of younger girls are really children and they're not prepared to be parents yet. And so, you see maternal mortality rates then go up because they're not physically and mentally ready to be a parent. So, it's very much there. They're all interconnected, they're all related, which is why going back to an earlier point, uh, meeting the needs, sexual and reproductive health care needs are so essential in any crisis, right up there with food, water, and shelter.

Jennie: Okay. So UNFPA is a lot of humanitarian settings right now. And unfortunately, we don't have the time to talk about all of them. So, let's focus on two of the big ones that have been in the news a lot lately. And let's start with Afghanistan and I know UNFPA has been doing a lot of work there right now. So what kind of work is UNFPA doing in Afghanistan?

Rachel: That's right, Jennie, thank you for bringing that up. I think it's been heavy on our hearts these past couple of weeks to see echoing the concern of the secretary general when he said, you know, really the rights of women, the rights of girls and women are, are a big question. It's a big question right now. And I think there's a real legitimate fear of return to very dark days for girls and women. But to answer your question, Jennie, we, again, as I, as I mentioned before, we've been in Afghanistan for decades. We are, we've been there before this crisis happened. We are there. Now we are staying, we are delivering, and we'll be there after whatever that looks like. So a solid example of that is back in 2018, UNFPA selected 35, uh, young women from rural areas, uh, in the provinces of Ghor Herat. And we train them as community midwives. And the reason why we felt that was a priority in country is because Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Back in 2002, I was 1600 women per hundred thousand were dying in childbirth, but that was the highest rate in the world I believe. Uh, and now it's down to around 600. That’s still very high and there's still work to be done there, but what progress has been made in the past 20 years there, and part of that progress is because of increased access to maternal care, to prenatal care, to safe delivery services. And so UNFPA, as I mentioned back in 2018, started training midwives to go back to their communities. They completed a two year intensive training course. They went back to their communities to serve in rural areas and they have been able to serve thousands of women in their community. They established what are called family health houses. They provide 24/7 basic emergency maternal health care. And in 2020 alone, nearly 5,000, so 4,943 pregnant women with no access to basic emergency care, were able to access that as a direct result of UNFPA’s work and training. And I will say today we have actually expanded the number of family health houses that are open in rural areas and 171 of 172 of those centers are still open, are still operating. And I just want to give major kudos to our folks on the ground who are risking their lives every day to serve the women of Afghanistan.

Jennie: Yeah, I think that's so important. I think it's often hard for people in the US to understand how hard it is to access maternal healthcare or reproductive healthcare in some of these remote, rural areas, particularly in a place like Afghanistan. Like there are places in the US where you may have to travel a long ways to get healthcare, but it's generally easier, right? You're going to have really well-done roads. It's just a little different and that's not to downplay the needs of access in the S because they are really important, but it is also generally a little bit easier to do that here versus somewhere like Afghanistan. So it's really important to focus on getting to these remote, rural areas to make sure that people have access to the services they need.

Rachel: That's exactly right. And I think, you know, not just the midwife network that we have helped stand up and support, but also mobile health teams, to your point, Jennie, that it's, you know, Afghanistan's of mountainous place. It's, it's not an easy place. There's not necessarily a, an advanced interconnected highway system where people can just jump in a car and go an hour or two to the hospital. So a lot of times our teams have to go into their communities and to their villages. And so the importance of, again, being there before crisis, better than the importance of being there before crisis allows us to better serve during a crisis and then to most appropriately and better serve after a crisis is over. I think it really remains, you know, I don't want to seem too Pollyanna-ish here because I think it really remains to be seen, what is the future for those 35 midwives that we trained? We don't know, we've had assurances from folks that women will be allowed to work, but is that going to be the reality? We don't know. We hope that's the case. The Secretary General has made it very clear that that's what the expectation is, that that there's unfettered humanitarian access. And that folks who we've worked with not just UN staff, but all of the community health workers that we have trained and all of the great advocates in country, that they be allowed to continue their work. But I think there's a real legitimate fear that, that won't be the case and that remains to be seen. So there are, the stakes are extremely high in the country. We've made progress on things, you know, lowering the maternal mortality rate, but that's not an inevitable statistic, that is not an inevitable trend-- that can spike right back up again, if we don't continue that work and continue the training of providers in country. So I really, I have a real there's real fear. There's real fear.

Jennie: I think that's a really important point. There has been so much progress made, but it doesn't mean that that progress is like given to continue or even go back. And there's a real worry right now about what's going to happen in Afghanistan, particularly for women and girls when it comes to access to services, but for so many other issues.

Rachel: That's exactly right. And if I could employ your audience, if they haven't listened to your recent conversation with Gayatri Patel of the Women's Refugee Commission, she had, I think, a really great and frankly, more broad understanding of what the real stakes were there. Um, she had a really great insight into the status of journalists and academics and things like that, that I don't have as much visibility into, but I thought she had some… had a really great conversation about the, the broader outlook and Afghanistan. So I would encourage your listeners to go back and listen to that if they haven't already.

Jennie: Thanks. Uh, yeah, Gayatri is always wonderful to talk to, and it was really great to get that broader view of what's happening in Afghanistan and what that's going to mean, particularly for women and girls. And I think it was a great setup for this conversation then where we can dive more deeply into the reproductive health and the maternal health needs in Afghanistan. But I think it's so important to talk about both.

Rachel: Yes, totally agree with you. And I think they're, they're related as we talked about, but, you know, it's all related. If a girl doesn't pass safely through her adolescence, then she can't then go on to be that journalist. She can't then go on to be that politician who is…who's at the table in the peace negotiations with the Taliban. So I think the line between an educated and healthy girl to an educated, healthy full adult in her society is it's direct it's direct line. So thank you for that.

Jennie: Okay. So after Afghanistan, the next big thing that was in the news, unfortunately, got really overshadowed because of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, because they kind of happened right around the same time, and that's earthquake in Haiti. So maybe, can you tell us a little bit about what is happening in Haiti and what UNFPA is doing?

Rachel: Absolutely. Thanks again, Jennie, for bringing this up. It's… you're totally right. And I feel like it has been overshadowed by so many other things that are going on both domestically in the United States and internationally. It's pretty unbelievable, but yes, I'm sure your listeners, most of them know this, but on August 14th, there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on the same fault line as that dramatic earthquake that 10 years ago, that really devastated the country. And I feel so bad again, as most of our listeners will know, this is in a backdrop of COVID that is ravaging the country. It is in the shadow of a presidential assassination…So you're also dealing with a lot of political instability and already a health crisis, food insecurity, gang violence. And then you have this absolutely devastating earthquake, literally along the same fault line as this last one as the last major, major earthquake in the country. So you have a compounding crisis in a country that is not easy, and Haiti comes with a baseline of challenges. So once again, UNFPA was already there. We've been in the country for decades. We are there. Now we have pre-positioned supplies because of the known risk of both hurricane season. It's also hurricane season, if the known risk of hurricanes, the known risk of earthquakes, we have pre-positioned supplies in the region and the country. So we were able to rush supplies to a number of people there. But look, you're dealing with destroyed hospitals, destroyed health facilities, buildings that have literally crumbled. You have thousands, you know, more than 2000 people reported to have been killed, more than 10,000 injured. And that's at a baseline when hospitals and clinics are, you know, have crumbled. And so we have, uh, at least 24 health facilities that have been either damaged or completely destroyed that UNFPA has been working in. We are very concerned that not just health facilities are damaged, but also of course people's homes, uh, homes are destroyed. And so you have homelessness, um, and you have a real, a very vulnerable situation, especially for younger people and for women who are unhoused right now in, in Haiti, I think it's a real problem. So right now, UNFPA is strengthening capacity. We have surged our people to 40 different health facilities. We have set up mobile teams for people who are out of their homes and who are not able to access traditional hospitals. We have reproductive health kits that are there with medical and nonmedical supplies, maternal health medicines, contraception, menstrual health supplies, to, for people to again, to maintain their, their dignity and their cleanliness. Because again, people don't stop menstruating. People don't stop being pregnant just because an earthquake has struck one's home. And it's estimated that 22,000 women are going to give birth in the next three months... So we're working very closely with the current Haitian government. We're part of the broader UN activities there to meet everything as basic from providing menstrual pads and clean underwear and soap to people to literally dropping hospitallers in the middle of the country that can provide those. After mentioned those needs to [inaudible] sections in the absence of traditional health facilities that have been damaged or, or crumbled. So again, just incredibly proud of, of our teams work in a very complex situation there, and we will continue to stay and deliver.

Jennie: I'm just really glad that we were able to talk about this. Cause I really do feel like the crisis in Haiti has been a bit like a forgotten crisis right now. It's just been overshadowed by so much between Afghanistan and many things happening in the states. It's, one, good to to remind people that this is still happening and still a humanitarian crisis, and to get to hear about the amazing work that UNFPA is doing.

Rachel: Thank you, Jennie. And I'll just mention that one of the roles that UNFPA plays in the broader humanitarian settings, including here in Haiti and also in our conversation of Afghanistan, is because we have access to supply chains and humanitarian corridors and airplanes and logistical capacities. We are able to not just apply UNFPA or other health, you know, UN supported health facilities, but really to support the health facilities that are run by governments and NGOs and community, 70% of UNFPA funding and money in any country, it goes to local organizations and local communities because the work that we're working on is incredibly intimate. It's incredibly personal. We rely on and partner with local communities who know what their folks need. So I just wanted to mention that that it's not just, you know, an anonymous UN person storming into a country, you know, suddenly upon the onset of a crisis, it's people who have been locally hired, it's Haitians in Haiti, the support of the UN, but tapping into the supply chains, it's Afghans in Afghanistan who have been hired, but who are of the community in their own communities. And we're working with the most respected faith-based organizations and NGOs on the ground. Something that we're really proud of, of the model of how we work.

Jennie: Okay. Now that we know about the great work that UNFPA is doing, what can the US do to support UNFPA? I know the past four years have been really dark, particularly in terms of support for UNFPA. So it's really important to talk about the ways the US can support them and also rebuild some of the damage that was done.

Rachel: Yes. Thank you for bringing this up. Yeah. We really regretted that the Trump administration didn't support UNFPA either politically or financially, they pulled all support from UNFPA and made no exemption for our humanitarian work, especially amid the COVID-19 crisis. So we were really delighted when the Biden-Harris administration included funding and support for UNFPA and its platform, and really made good on that intention, the moment they took office. So we're really proud to say that we have received funding from the United States in a number of different places, including in Afghanistan. And I believe also in Haiti, don't, don't quote me on that if it's wrong, but the US has been back in a big way, both politically and financially. So we're really grateful for that. And, you know, folks can, can express their appreciation to the administration and for their members of Congress, for those who have supported us, because our work is tough. It's a tough mandate sometimes, but it is so critical that there is a voice speaking for reproductive health and rights around the world, even the, a crisis. So we're really delighted that the administration is back. We need the help of civil society partners. We couldn't do it without them. We couldn't do it without NGOs. We couldn't do it without you all, without folks who are advocating for the rights of women and girls and, and all people, really not just women and girls, but for all people to realize their, their sexual reproductive health and rights, and to support UNFPA’s work. We were so appreciative of that.

Jennie: I think that leads us to my favorite question. We have an audience that loves to take action. What can our audience do?

Rachel: Yes. So, you know, again, hearkening back to the earlier conversation, the core of UNFPA’s work is so often first featured and last funded. When you look at news coverage of any crisis and you see a pregnant woman, or you see a baby, or you see children, you know, fleeing from their school or from their community, you turn around and then you ask for political and financial support to then support that expectant mother or that teen girl who is hoping to finish up for school, you know, without becoming a bride or a mother before she's ready, or to that person who is fleeing a home that is violent, suddenly that political support and that financial support will dry up. So my ask for your listeners, which is somewhat similar to what, again, Gayatri tried to call back to the last episode, you know, call your member of Congress. And if they are supportive of UNFPA’s work and the work broadly, it doesn't necessarily have to be done by UNFPA, but the work more broadly on behalf of sexual reproductive health and rights, call them and thank them. And it's not just in a crisis that it needs to happen. I know there's a lot happening in the US domestically this week, but when it happens here, it's happening all over the world. There are versions of this that are happening all over the world and those rights, and those choices must be protected and fiercely defended. And you know, where we can ask for support, we would appreciate that. And our sister organization, Friends of UNFPA, they are constantly doing fundraising on behalf of UNFPA and allowing you to channel that political support for UNFPA, if you are so interested and we would be very grateful for your support. Thank you.

Jennie: Well, Rachel, as always, it was delightful to get to talk to you. Thank you so much for being here and letting everyone know about the wonderful work that UNFPA is doing.

Rachel: We really appreciate being able to be on here. Jennie, thank you for your time. Thank you for inviting us and thank you for all you and your listeners are doing every day. Really appreciate it. Take care.

Jennie: Okay. Y'all I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Rachel. And just remember we are in this fight for the long haul. I know we're all exhausted and heartbroken and feeling so much rage, but we will keep fighting and we will be doing an episode soon.

Jennie: Thanks for listening everyone. And we'll see you on our next episode of RePROS Fight Back. For more information, including show notes from this episode and previous episodes, please visit our website at reprosfightback.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at RePROS Fight Back, or on Instagram at reprosfb. If you like our show, please help others find it by sharing it with your friends and subscribing, rating and reviewing us on iTunes. Thanks for listening.

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