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UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

“This support gives us hope”: A journey to motherhood in the midst of Tropical Cyclone Chido

Tropical Cyclone Chido is estimated to have killed 120 people and affected over 450,000. A lack of shelter, food shortages and the need for long-term medical and psychosocial support are some of the key priorities for recovery

When Tropical Cyclone Chido tore through northern Mozambique in December 2024, 26-year-old Massiala Agostinho was eight months pregnant with her fifth child.  Like almost all others in her village of Sambene, in the Mecufi District of Cabo Delgado Province, Ms. Agostinho’s home was quickly reduced to rubble by powerful winds and torrential…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

“Marriage is a choice”: Working with people with disabilities to address gender-based violence in Madagascar

Child marriage is one of the most common types of gender-based violence in Madagascar, with 40 per cent of girls married before they are 18

“I live with my six children, one of whom has a disability,” said 40-year-old Zeteny, from the Anôsy region in Madagascar’s Grand Sud region. “I look after my disabled son full-time, and my 14-year-old daughter had to leave school to work and support us.”  Years of successive droughts have wrought…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

Delivering hope and saving lives: Reflections on maternal health progress in East and Southern Africa

Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the region has dropped by 48 per cent since 2000, with skilled birth attendance rising to 70 per cent

The cries of newborn twins broke the silence of a small clinic in Malawi, a sound that might not have been heard without the lifesaving skills of Nora, a UNFPA-supported midwife.  Late one night, a young mother arrived after walking for hours, her pregnancy complicated and her life hanging by…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

Even as they flee crisis and disaster, women and girls have the right to safety and support

UNFPA is determined to end the scourge of gender-based violence, to protect women and girls, and to assist survivors on their journey to recovery

Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. When conflict and disaster force women and girls to flee their communities and homes, they face grave danger. Displacement takes a devastating toll on their well-being and leaves them exposed to…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) supports stepped-up efforts to prevent adolescent pregnancy in Zimbabwe

Pregnancy and childbirth are among the world’s top drivers of preventable death for adolescent girls

“I had sex thinking he loved me. But when I fell pregnant, I saw a very unexpected side of him,” 20-year-old Olivia Nyangasi told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.  Ms. Nyangasi had never been taught how to practice safe sex. At 17, she became pregnant; but…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

Humanitarian response enables safe childbirth amid Cameroon’s catastrophic floods

198,000 people have received services designed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence – which is known to increase in times of conflict, stress and trauma

“Our village was peaceful until these armed men appeared, sowing terror and death,” Aicha* told UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, recalling a night three years ago when her village was attacked.  "They slaughtered two men, right in front of me,” she said. “"We fled, leaving everything behind.”…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

Female genital mutilation leads to death in childbirth, a preventable tragedy Ugandan community members assert

As of 2022, some 0.2 percent of women aged 15-49 had been cut, according to surveys, but with considerable variation within the country

“My sister should not have passed away in the way she did,”  Josephine Telo told a group of women who had survived female genital mutilation. This was the practice – the mutilation of a woman or girl’s genitals for no medical reason – that killed her sister.  Ms. Telo and her sister,…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

10 Ways to Address Intimate Partner violence in the Face of Climate Change

Extreme heat and environmental stress can trigger aggressive behaviors and conflicts, leaving women particularly vulnerable to physical and emotional abuse

As mothers in Malawi are forced to move because of extreme flooding, in Zambia a family of five packs their belongings and leaves their village because of drought. All through the East and Southern Africa Region, the effects of climate change are making themselves known, and while they force migration,…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

Strength in crisis - one woman’s #ActforHumanity in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Violence in the country has left some 7.2 million people internally displaced, more than 860,000 of them are women of childbearing age–leaving them incredibly vulnerable

Strength and leadership most often emerge from the most challenging and vulnerable places. For Deheve Machazo, witnessing the dire conditions for women and girls in an internal displacement site was a turning point. “I can't stay silent while women and girls are in the dark about contraception. I’ve decided to…

UNFPA - East and Southern Africa
Source: UNFPA - East and Southern Africa |

Investing for impact: Latest on Kenya’s Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Development Impact Bond

The first-of-its-kind program was launched in Kenya in 2023 to improve access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for adolescent girls

At a government-run dispensary located in Nairobi’s Kware informal settlement, 26-year-old nurse Steven Ngang’a attends to young mothers holding their babies. The girls, all aged between 15-19 years are here to access family planning and HIV services, after enrolling on Tiko, a digital platform that connects adolescents to youth-friendly sexual…