Ipas highlights critical reproductive-health needs of women in conflict

The lives of internally displaced persons are overwhelmingly characterized by poverty, violence, disease and hopelessness.

Photo courtesy of Leo Erken, Panos Pictures.

Among the inhabitants of Zugdidi, Georgia, are a great number of citizens who fled there from the violence in the neighboring separatist region of Abkhazia. Known as internally displaced persons (IDPs), their lives are overwhelmingly characterized by poverty, violence, disease and hopelessness.

The women of Zugdidi are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. To raise awareness about and address the urgent medical and social issues faced by this vulnerable group, the Government of Abkhazia in Exile recently held an advocacy campaign called Zugdidi Days of the Social and Health Protection of Internally Displaced Persons.

Ipas's Policy and Program Consultant for Europe, Daniela Draghici, was invited to attend the workshop to specifically address the problems of violence against women and unsafe abortion among IDPs and to promote increased access to safe abortion services.

Up to 350,000 of Abkhazia's estimated population of 540,000 fled the region between August 1992 and October 1993, most to other areas of Georgia. As many as two-thirds of those displaced by the conflict who resettled in Zugdidi now live in collective centers such as empty administrative buildings, schools, kindergartens, hotels and tourist camps.

The recent advocacy campaign was designed in part to provide immediate assistance to the IDPs in Zugdidi—among whom there is a high rate of HIV/AIDS, abortion and other health risks—through medical check-ups and the distribution of medicines, consumer goods and personal hygiene supplies.

Equally important was the series of workshops held to systematically address the ongoing health and social issues faced by the citizens of Zugdidi. The workshops were attended by representatives from human-rights and reproductive-health organizations, the media, the health-care system and the government.

Draghici led a workshop on the magnitude and consequences of violence against women and unsafe abortion. Specifically, the workshop included:

• An overview presentation on violence against women as a public-health emergency;
• Discussions about violence in the local context and the roles of NGOs and other organizations, the government and the media in addressing the problem;
• A presentation about safe abortion care, particularly focusing on manual vacuum aspiration (MVA).

“The 50 participants were particularly appreciative of the Russian-language resource materials provided,” recalled Draghici. “As proof of the impact and sustainability of this kind of intervention, one local physician requested a copy of the MVA instructional CD-ROM in order to replicate it on her home computer and share with colleagues who had been unable to attend.”

Four obstetrician-gynecologists serving IDPs in Zugdidi and Tbilisi who attended the workshop were sponsored by Ipas to attend a subsequent clinical training workshop on MVA.

Key recommendations generated during the campaign included:

• Allocate funding for research into the type and magnitude of violence against women in the region;
• Enact parliamentary legislation that protects women;
• Increase training for health workers, teachers, civil society groups and the police;
• Develop locally appropriate resource materials;
• Increase access to specialized social and medical services, including safe abortion.

A coordinating committee of government representatives and NGOs, chaired by the First Deputy of the Government of Abkhazia, has been set up to implement those recommendations.

Ipas's work in Georgia began in partnership with the National Abortion Federation, which conducted an MVA training in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2004. Ipas took the lead in establishing commercial distribution of MVA instruments in Tbilisi as part of this project.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258