|
An editorial by Women Thrive President and Co-Founder Ritu Sharma Fox on how women are especially hurt by natural disasters, and what Peru can learn from past disasters. 
In 2004 Edge worked with women in South Asia struggling to
rebuild their lives after the Tsunami. The lessons learned from
this natural to disaster and others are critical to helping women in Peru affected by the earthquake
Photo Credit: Joanne Omang
| The past month has seen several major natural disasters: a string of earthquakes in Peru and Indonesia have shattered the lives of many thousands of people. Very soon, though, it will be time to move from relief to reconstruction. From past experience, making that process work fairly and effectively for the poor, especially women, will be the biggest challenge.
After Hurricane Katrina, America witnessed on television living proof that natural disasters hit the poor particularly hard. The fact that so many millions of people worldwide live in shoddy and inadequate housing, without the means to escape and without a voice in reconstruction, is the reason why natural disasters exact such a great toll. However, what gets missed most often is that women have the greatest risk of being poor worldwide, and are often a disaster’s worst victims.
| During the Asian tsunami of 2004, the survivors of the tsunami in many places were males by a ratio of three to one. Poverty was the biggest cause of this, but so were women’s traditional roles. When the wave hit without warning on a Sunday morning, women could not run fast enough since they were often carrying children, had elderly relatives they were caring for, were wearing longer, more flowing clothes, had a harder time climbing trees or simply did not know how to swim. In Pakistan’s devastating earthquake of 2005, women-- and the elderly and children in their care--had the hardest time leaving their homes in the mountains to access refugee camps run by aid organizations in the plains.
For women, the worst time often comes after the worst of the disaster itself is over. Immediately after the tsunami, for example, Women's Edge Coalition advocated with Congress to set aside official U.S. reconstruction assistance to focus exclusively on women’s needs, because we were hearing from local women’s organizations in the affected countries that women were often being bypassed in the process. Housing and jobs are the biggest priorities for all survivors of a disaster: they are looking to work so they can care for their families. However, since rebuilding infrastructure is often the biggest priority after a disaster--and jobs building roads and bridges largely do not go to women--they have fewer employment options. Women do not travel alone easily in many cultures and female survivors of disasters heroically care for sick and wounded family members, and take in the children of relatives and friends who did not survive. All this makes it hard for women to just leave and go someplace else to look for work.
During a visit to Sri Lanka one year after the tsunami, I personally witnessed the inspiring work of local women’s organizations that were helping women in practical ways with the U.S. reconstruction assistance funds for which we had advocated. They were used for small business loans to help women start home-based snack shops, replace and repair fishing nets and buy new silk weaving looms, among many other things.
But I also saw how hard it was, even when billions of dollars of aid were available, for women to access it in a way that was helpful to them. Women often do not own titles to their homes and other property, which are usually in their husband’s names. So when time came to claim compensation for a destroyed home, they often did not have documents to prove ownership. Women who had lost male relatives had difficulty accessing benefits and rations, or even applying for loans to start businesses. Giving a woman in a village a sewing machine is not helpful if she cannot access a market several miles away and sell the clothes she makes. And given the focus on tangible assistance, women often have little support for the tremendous social and psychological pressures they face in the aftermath of a disaster, including very often an increase in violence.
The lesson from natural disasters is that they do not strike everyone equally, and unless we seek out and prioritize the needs of women in developing countries, they probably will not be heard. As countries rebuild after the latest disaster, it’s important that its women have a strong voice and a central role in the reconstruction, and that official U.S. assistance recognize their unique and important role. It’s also important to prioritize the rebuilding of local community and organizations and businesses: reconstruction, as opposed to relief, is most sustainable if it is locally driven. Disasters will always happen, but the best way to help the poorest people, especially women, is to ensure they are less poor, and so less vulnerable the next time something strikes.
| By Ritu Sharma Fox
Ritu Sharma Fox is Co-Founder and President of Women Thrive Worldwide (formerly the Women’s Edge Coalition), a Washington, D.C. -based organization that advocates for U.S. international assistance and economic policies that benefit women in poverty worldwide.
| |
What's New 
