[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’‘Give Marawi women dignity kits’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – Women caught in the ongoing conflict in Marawi City must be provided with “dignity kits,” according to a senator.
Department of Health Administrative Order (AO) No. 2016-05 mandates the distribution of the minimum initial service package, or MISP, to women affected by disasters or emergencies.
The MISP includes a dignity kit that contains bath soap, laundry soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, panties, brassiere, sanitary napkins, shampoo, face towel, bath towel, slippers, tissue roll, and cotton balls.
“In wartime,” Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said, the plight of nursing mothers, babies and pregnant women is “exacerbated when they’re uprooted from their homes.”
Around 11,500 pregnant women were displaced by the fighting between state troops and the Maute terrorist group, while at least 7,000 mothers have recently given birth amid the conflict, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
The dignity kit shall also contain a malong, a colorful wrap-around cloth that is part of traditional clothing in Muslim communities.
AO No. 2016-05 implements provisions of the Magna Carta of Women and the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, which require the provision of health services to women during emergencies, Angara said.
The Reproductive Health law, which the senator authored when he was congressman, requires that emergency MISPs must include maternal, neonatal and reproductive health care kits.
“Disaster aid must adopt a ‘women and children first policy,’ and this is best manifested through the distribution of women and baby kits,” said Angara./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
