Africa-Press – Malawi. It goes without saying that disaster strikes indiscriminately and causes untold suffering among the affected communities. However, vulnerable groups such as women and girls bear the disproportionate brunt of such catastrophe.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Ana that hit southern Malawi, 48-year-old survivor, Anne Kaleso, currently at Bangula evacuation centre in Nsanje District, shared a blood-curdling human rights situation women and girls endure at the camp.
“The situation is complicated here. We share shelter with men, which is bad. We urgently need food, proper shelter, toilets and washrooms. The situation is even worse for women who have just delivered, as they need special support and attention. We appeal for urgent assistance,” she told ActionAid Malawi partners who were conducting a disaster assessment in the district.
Kaleso’s lamentation mirrors the predicament and human rights crisis many women and girls find themselves in during emergencies. In its update released on January 30 2022, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs indicated that 845,685 people across the country’s 17 districts have been affected by the Tropical Storm Ana.
Nearly half of those affected are, no doubt, women. However, this is a group that, despite enduring the trauma of the disaster, must still bear the unpaid care work burden of cooking, fetching water, firewood and taking care of the children.
Most disastrously, such humanitarian situations expose women to adverse human rights violations such sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse. Kuchene Women Forum, an ActionAid Malawi partner-based in disaster-hit Nsanje district says cases of women and girls being sexually exploited for food aid are always on the rise during emergencies.
The Kuchene Women Forum leader, Gertrude Kaleso, says girls as young as 13 are being forced into marriages within the country or neighbouring Mozambique in search of ‘a better life’.
The familiar challenges women and girls experience in humanitarian situation speak directly to the weak protection mechanisms at community, district, and national level. Whenever disasters strike, more focus is apparently put to providing for urgent material needs for the affected people.
Little attention is paid to strengthening the social protection systems and mechanisms in the evacuation centres and communities. This consequently relegates human rights violations like gender-based violence to some silent background whimpers.
This is worsened by poor representation of women and young women in disaster preparedness and response. Most of the disaster committees in communities and camps are led and dominated by men. This creates, if not exacerbates, the existing unequal power balance between men and women, thereby exposing the latter to multiple human rights violations.
One hopes that the Tropical Storm Ana finally nudges the Malawi government, private sector, charity organisations and the donor community that disaster response is not about supporting the affected with urgent needs such as food, shelter, and sanitation facilities. How such support is provided is equally, if not more, key.
There is need to religiously stick to human rights-based approach in all the interventions during any emergency or humanitarian situation. If anything, emergencies should be an opportunity to strengthen rights of the vulnerable groups such as women and girls.
And there is no better way to strengthen rights of such the vulnerable groups than putting them in lead of disaster preparedness and response. Let women affected by the disaster take leadership of the key structures such the food, health and sanitation, and social protection committees both within evacuation centres and outside. That should significantly lead to reduction of cases of sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse. Just as every disaster has a woman’s face, so should be the response.
For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press
