“I want my baby safe, this is all I need.” Supporting women and girls in Myanmar after Cyclone Mocha tears a path of destruction

RAKHINE STATE, Myanmar – “We need more health-care services and facilities in operation. I want my baby safe, this is all I need.” Nan Nwe, 40, is pregnant and newly displaced in Sittwe, in Myanmar’s cyclone-battered Rakhine State. 

Cyclone Mocha was one of the most powerful storms ever to hit Myanmar, affecting an estimated 3.4 million people. Howling winds tore homes to pieces, while torrential downpours and a dangerous storm surge submerged areas along the coast, flooding villages and leaving hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people without shelter.  

Many who were already displaced in camps and displacement sites, stateless people, women and children, and people with disabilities have lost their homes and access to basic services and clean water. Health facilities and safe spaces for women and girls that are supported by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, have been extensively damaged or destroyed entirely by the storm. 

Yoma Nandar, 21, is also from Sittwe, near where the cyclone made landfall on 14 May. She asked, “When pregnant women need services urgently, where do we go unless the services are available and in our reach?”

Twenty-six year old Nway Nway Soe is also pregnant and lives in the path of the cyclone. She told UNFPA, “With the destruction of roads and my nearest clinic and expensive transportation costs, I cannot go to the city to receive antenatal care.”

To reach women and girls in even the most inaccessible areas, UNFPA is supporting mobile clinics across nine villages in Sittwe township, providing assistance such as health check-ups, prenatal and postnatal care, family planning and psychosocial support. These clinics, already operated by UNFPA partners before the cyclone, help ensure those grappling with the crisis can receive critical sexual and reproductive health care.

Mounting needs as access and assistance are limited

Reaching people in need was already a challenge in parts of both Rakhine and the northwest due to ongoing conflict and restrictions on movement and supply transportation, and now roads and bridges have been destroyed by flooding.

Ms. Nway was among those who received assistance from one of the mobile facilities in Sittwe. “I’m so lucky that this mobile clinic comes to our door for pregnant women like us,” she said. “There are many women who need urgent health care and support in affected areas.”

Over a month on from the cyclone, humanitarian needs in cyclone-struck areas are enormous. Those affected include some 432,000 women and girls of reproductive age, including over 20,700 who are currently pregnant; around 2,300 of these women were due to give birth over the past month, in the chaotic aftermath of the crisis.  

Mya Khin, 37, from the Min Hla village in Sittwe said: “I am nine months pregnant. My house was severely damaged by the cyclone […] What I need most is quality health care for a safe delivery. I am very happy that this mobile clinic is reaching us at this critical time. I received the services and information that are important for my pregnancy.”

Dr Win Zaw Tun, a medical officer with the Myanmar Medical Association in Say Thamar Kyi village in Sittwe, explained the gravity of the situation many are facing. 

“Pregnant women can experience many health-related issues unless services are available. Women with high-risk pregnancies are more likely to [be in] critical condition. They need continuous care and even early referral in case of emergency.”

Multiple and multiplying risks

The storm also disrupted community support systems and services to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. Most of the UNFPA-supported safe spaces for women and girls in central and northern Rakhine have been damaged, while power outages, dilapidated water and toilet facilities and overcrowded living conditions that lack privacy, sanitation and proper lighting are exacerbating these risks. 

With the scale of the needs in Myanmar, UNFPA urgently requires funding to support sexual and reproductive health services, including gender-based violence response and mental health and psychosocial support, rehabilitating health facilities, deploying trained midwives and other critical cadres and procuring essential medicines, clean delivery kits and dignity kits.

With the serious gaps in health infrastructure, it is imperative to ensure emergency sexual and reproductive health services to help prevent maternal deaths, sexual violence, unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

Yet many, like Dr. Win and his team, are committed to staying and supporting thousands in desperate need of their help, whatever the conditions. 

“Although our clinic building was completely destroyed by Cyclone Mocha, we have made a tent to provide the services,” he said. “Our life-saving services must not stop under any kind of emergency.”