UN agency provides 2,750 support kits to women and girls at risk of violence amid COVID-19

At the signing ceremony held in Hanoi on March 22, Naomi Kitahara, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative in Vietnam, handed over the kits to Nguyen Thi Ha, Deputy Minister of MOLISA. The sets will be sent to the Hai Duong Provincial Fatherland Front, Dong Anh District’s health centre in Hanoi and the Quang Ninh Provincial social work centre.

The initiative is part of an Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funded project on “Supporting Interventions to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Children in Vietnam in the context of COVID-19”.

This follows the UNFPA’s previous handovers of dignity kits to MOLISA to mitigate the negative consequences of COVID-19 for women at risk of GBV in flood-affected provinces in Vietnam. Up to now, 16,246 women at risk of violence have received the kits.

The dignity kit is a signature feature of UNFPA's comprehensive package of humanitarian assistance to safeguard the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, mitigate the risk of GBV and protect the dignity of women and girls adversely affected by crises. Each kit comprises the basic items they need to protect themselves and maintain their hygiene, respect and dignity in the face of a crisis.

“Supporting people affected by humanitarian crises is not only the right thing to do but also the wise thing to do to save lives and build resilience to avoid COVID-19 from cycling back upon vulnerable people and communities around the globe,” said Kitahara at the handover ceremony.

Ending violence against women and girls should be a priority, helping make sure that everyone is part of the country’s sustainable development process, leaving no one behind, she said, adding that frontline health workers must also be protected from COVID-19 and be provided with personal protective equipment to treat infected patients while they continue to provide essential services.

Since the mid-1990s, UNFPA has been providing dignity kits in humanitarian settings around the world to help ensure the specific needs of women and girls are met, even in emergencies.