UN POPULATION FUND AIRLIFTS SAFE MOTHERHOOD SUPPLIES TO MADAGASCAR CYCLONE VICTIMS

Press Release
POP/769

UN POPULATION FUND AIRLIFTS SAFE MOTHERHOOD SUPPLIES TO MADAGASCAR CYCLONE VICTIMS

NEW YORK, 10 April (UNFPA) -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is airlifting about two tonnes of life-saving emergency safe motherhood and reproductive health supplies in the first of two shipments to Madagascar to help victims of cyclone Hudah, which this week hit the eastern African country still suffering from the effects of the earlier cyclone Eline and tropical storm Gloria.

The first shipment, expected to reach Madagascar on Tuesday, 11 April, will supplement the relief supplies the Fund and other United Nations agencies have already provided from the stocks they had on the ground. This shipment, which includes delivery kits and instruments for handling obstetric complications in health centres, is expected to meet the needs of some 300,000 people for three months. A second shipment, which will follow shortly afterwards, will serve an average of some 900,000 people for three months. The supplies will be distributed by the UNFPA's Representative in Madagascar, Bernard Coquelin.

The safe motherhood and reproductive health kits provide basic supplies needed to perform clean, safe deliveries. They include basic clean home delivery supplies, such as plastic sheeting, razor blades for cutting umbilical cords, sterile gloves and plastic aprons. Also included are normal delivery subkits used to stabilize precarious situations, such as convulsions and bleeding; and referral-level instruments used to perform caesarean sections and resuscitate babies and mothers. The shipment also includes tools for suturing vaginal and cervical tears.

Mr. Coquelin has stated that UNFPA is providing similar reproductive health supplies to help the victims of February's cyclone Eline and the March tropical storm Gloria. The Fund, he added, is undertaking to rehabilitate some health facilities damaged by the disasters. The actions were taken in response to appeals for assistance from the country.

Since July 1999, UNFPA has provided help in emergencies in at least 10 countries. Those include Venezuela, India, Mozambique, Turkey and East Timor.

UNFPA is the largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries and States with economies in transition. The Fund assists those countries to improve reproductive health and family planning services on the basis of individual choice, and to formulate population policies in support of efforts towards sustainable development.

For more information, please contact Corrie Shanahan, Tel: 212-297-5023, e- mail: shanahan@unfpa.org or visit the Web site at www.unfpa.org. You may contribute to UNFPA through the U.S. Committee for the United Nations Population Fund at 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A., or by credit card on their Web site at www.unipopusa.com. * *** *