During the aftermath of disaster, there is an essential need of gender sensitive responses with consideration to the diversity of women and their diverse needs. The objective of the gender sensitive response campaign is to be with women and support them with love and compassion, hence the organization calls its initiative Sneha Campaign ('Sneha' meaning love and compassion). The campaign prioritizes the need of the women and adolescent girls in the most difficult situation. We respond to disasters with the theme “relief with dignity”. As an organization working for women’s empowerment
COVID-19 Response
Updated on July 2020
During the aftermath of the disaster, there is an essential need of gender-sensitive responses with consideration to the diversity of women and their diverse needs. Our gender-sensitive response campaign aims to be with women and support them with love and compassion, hence the organization calls its initiative Sneha Campaign ('Sneha' meaning love and compassion). The campaign prioritizes the need of the women and adolescent girls in the most difficult situation.
Evolving through the time, our relief activities provided services to women and adolescent girls through safe spaces, provided psycho-social counseling to the survivors, supported the survivors on need-based approach and facilitated capacity building to women through orientations, developed feminist leadership and human resources on different issues like GBV, health and hygiene during menstruation, sexual and reproductive health among others.
Our intervention is focused on the specific needs of survivors so that they can recover themselves as fast as possible. Hence, we focus on providing the environment and space to express themselves necessary for recovery and resilience building. Apart from providing services and safe spaces, empowerment component is built within which have shown that survivors’ resilience and recovery power have increased so far in our findings.
WOREC is also responding to COVID-19 pandemic situation in its working area with the same aspirations. We are supporting in the area of health, support to survivors of gender based violence, pregnant women and lactating mother, women with disability and elderly single women.
WOREC is delivering support to COVID-19 Response in its working area through:
1. Support to gender-based violence survivors through the safe house
Support mechanisms for gender-based violence survivors should be available during the lockdown and disaster situation. Hence, WOREC is operating its safe house with psychosocial counseling services and advocating for support mechanisms to be properly functional. We also encourage reporting of violence against girls and women and urge the government to promote and protect constitutionally guaranteed rights of people to live a life free from fear of violence. We are advocating for accessibility of safe-house, psychosocial counselling, health, and legal support for the survivors.
A safe house is established in Gauriganga municipality (6 bed) with leadership and coordination of local government in Kailali district. Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM), office support staff and psychosocial counselor are regularly providing the required services in the newly established safe house. The municipality has supported food items, health kits, mosquito nets, and blanket for the safe house.
Similarly a safe house is also established in Budhanilkhantha Municipality in leadership and coordinatoin of local government in Kathmandu district.
WOREC is continuously operating its safe house in Kathmandu (2 bed), Dhanusha (6 bed), Morang (4 bed), Udayapur (8 bed), Dang (6 bed) and Kailali (2 bed). The safe house are providing services to the survivors of gender based violence maintaining necessary standards and precautions during COVID-19 situation.
WOREC received 2 PPE sets and sanitizer for safe house in Dhanusha district and 4 PPE sets for continuous operation of the community health clinic in Udayapur from District Health Office.
Safe House operation guideline for operation during COVID-19 pandemic has been prepared and followed for its operation.
2. Psychosocial counseling support
We respond to disasters with the theme “relief with dignity”. As an organization working for women’s empowerment and their well-being, WOREC recognizes that psychosocial support is one of the key elements to consider even while distributing relief materials to women. For us, it was imperative to make women feel that they are not alone. Standing together with woman in need and making her feel that she and her family are not alone is very important.
WOREC has started the counselling support and radio touch program with counselors to address the GBV cases and mental health during COVID-19 situation. The organization is also mobilizing 28 counselors in different districts who are providing online and telephonic counseling including messages on self-care. In three months of lockdown period, 745 survivors and their family members, and 621 person in stress due to COVID-19 were provided psychosocial counseling services. WOREC is also a member of a district counseling network in Morang district.
A one-week psycho-social counseling service was conducted in May in two quarantine centres at Rautamai, Udayapur in collaboration with Rauta Hitkendra, a community based organization.
3. Relief Material Support
The Sneha campaign targets women in most difficult situations, prioritizing the needs of pregnant women, lactating mothers, elderly women, women with disabilities, adolescent girls and daily wage labourer.
We were able to reach the women in most vulnerable situation with 1137 relief package in Siraha, Udayapur, Sunsari, Sindhupalchowk, Rukum, Kailali and Dang district. 300 dignity kits were supported to women and adolescent girls.
Food items and non-food items including hygiene kits to 320 relief packages were handed over to local government in Udayapurgadi, Triyuga, Belaka and Rautamai of Udaypur district to support pregnant women, lactating mother and elderly single women.
WOREC handed over total 100 relief package to Tulsipur sub-metropolitan city (60 food package) and Shantinagar Rural Municipality (40 food package) in Dang district to support pregnant women and lactating mother. 2 survivors (pregnant and lactating women) of house fire in Dang were supported with food items.
Similarly, 163 relief packages were handed over to the Barahshetra Municipality, Koshi rural municipality and Duhabi municipality in Sunsari. Among those total, 17 packages were supported to the GBV survivors of Duhabi and Inaruwa municipality in coordination with Awaz Nepal.
In Siraha district, WOREC distributed 113 sets of relief items in the Lahan municipality in coordination with ward number 13. 144 packages of relief items were also distributed to the Majhi community of Indrawati Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk.
WOREC supported 185 women including conflict survivors with relief package in Rukum district.
The package comprises of 25 kg rice, 2 kg lentil, 1 kg chickpea, 1-liter cooking oil, 1 kg salt, 6 pieces of hand washing soap, 1 kg of detergent and 2-meter cotton fabric as sanitary pad.
Additionally, 2400 sanitary pad was supported to women and adolescent girls in Kailali through the municipality.
In Udayapur district Sada (Mushar) community, ward no. 9 of Triyuga Municipality was supported with Nrs. 25,000 for food items through Municipality.
4. Community Health Clinic
The community health clinics located in District office Udayapur and Dang have been providing, preventive, curative and counseling services together with promoting the need for health services at the grass roots level. These clinics provide primary health care especially to the marginalized and vulnerable groups who have do not have access to health services.
Reports have indicated that during the lockdown period, women did not have access to quality health care services. Hence, community health clinic located at Udayapur has resumed its operation focusing especially on the women health services like pregnancy checkup and contraceptive services.
943 female and 281 male received essential health services including ANC/PNC checkups, vaccinations, reproductive health services.
5. Documentation of cases of violence against women and girls
WOREC's data shows that incidents of violence against women have increased during the lockdown period.
We have recorded 843 cases of violence against women and girls documented through three hotline numbers and 28 psychosocial counselors since the lockdown. (Last updated 7th July, 2020)
6. Medical item support
WOREC responded with the need for health professionals supporting 44 PPE and 23 Infrared Thermometer in the Kailali district.
7. Awareness raising through media
WOREC is continuously broadcasting PSA on self-care and information on psychosocial counseling through radios in Dhanusha, Siraha, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Udayapur, Dang, Sindhuli, Kailali and Rukum districts. The radio messages on the gender based violence is also aired.
The PSA are being broadcasted on Nepali and local language in provinces, as most of the information was previously available in either Nepali or English.
Link to radio PSA
GBV response WOREC PSA 2 FOr all districts.mp3
8. Advocacy and drawing attention of government and stakeholder
WOREC is advocating for gender-sensitive response and demanding to respond to gender-based violence survivors. We are monitoring situations including quarantine centres in different districts.
9. Research activities
We are conducting research to assess risk and preventive measures of gender based violence during COVID 19 lockdown period and work burden of working women during lockdown period.
Related Links
Responding to this crisis has been made possible with the generous support and funding from the Foundation for Just Society, AEIN, Misseror and UNWOMEN.
WOREC has been coordinating and will work with local governments and concerned line agencies to carry out the pandemic response activities. WOREC is a member of local respond committees formed by local governments and also a member of the GBV coordination committee of the Nepal government at the federal level. WOREC will also coordinate with the protection cluster as it is a member of the national protection cluster and local protection clusters in different districts.
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WOREC responded to Koshi flood in 2008, and in events of other natural disasters after that including floods in Terai, Nepal earthquake 2015 and COVID-19 pandemic situation.
WOREC initiated Sneha Campaign during Nepal earthquake 2015 to support the women and adolescent grils with safe shelters, psychosocial counseling, rebuilding homes and livelihoods among other. Gender sensitive guideline was prepared during Nepal earthquake 2015 to regulate women friendly space known as Sneha Centre (Sneha means love and compassion) which was operated by WOREC and NAWHRD. The guideline was forwarded to chief secretary of the country with request to adapt this within government relief programs.
During Koshi flood in 2008, WOREC urged to Government of Nepal that structures and services needs to be gender sensitive and accessible to target groups and community, for instance women friendly toilets in the temporary shelters. |