27 February 2018, Addis Ababa – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today handed-over 2 ambulances to the Health Bureaus of the Oromia and Somali Regions. The ambulances were purchased with the generous funding of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan as part of the project entitled “Addressing Reproductive Health needs and providing Gender Based Violence services for drought affected populations.”

The ambulances will be deployed at the Moyale and Warder Hospitals to strengthen the referral linkage in managing obstetric and other complications in drought affected populations in the Oromia and Somali regions. 

The one-year project has been implemented with a total budget of close to 30 million Birr in 13 priority one drought affected hot spot woredas in the Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Somali and Tigray Regions. It aims at reducing preventable maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality related to drought and improving measures for the prevention of gender-based violence and provision of response services.

A little over 800 thousand people are benefiting from the project, out of which more than one-quarter are women of reproductive age.  The project provides women, girls and pregnant mothers in drought affected hot spot woredas with access to lifesaving emergency reproductive health and GBV response services.    

Emergency reproductive health kits, post-rape treatment kits, delivery coaches and hospital beds were dispatched to equip 13 health centers and 6 referral hospitals in the five intervention regions of the project. Reusable dignity kits were also procured and distributed to women of reproductive age and adolescent girls in the project sites.
                          
The mid-year review of the Government endorsed 2017 Humanitarian Requirement Document and the soon to be launched 2018 Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan reiterate the urgency to respond to reproductive health and gender-based violence needs.

Officials of the Health Bureaus of Oromia and Somali Regions, Embassy of Japan and UNFPA were present at the handover ceremony.

For additional information, please contact:
Abraham Gelaw, Communications Unit, UNFPA; Tel. +251-11-5444079; +251-911-488627;  E-mail: gelaw@unfpa.org