Myanmar and China: The Most Effective Way to Help Women and Children in Natural Disasters

Myanmar and China: The Most Effective Way to Help Women and Children in
Natural Disasters

Women Thrive President Ritu Sharma Fox Available for Interviews

WASHINGTON, May 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The story that rarely gets told
is how natural disasters like the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in
China uniquely impact women and children. "Tragically, when disaster strikes
in most parts of the world, women and children get hurt the worst on every
level - but their story is rarely told loudly enough," says Ritu Sharma Fox,
co-founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide (www.womenthrive.org). "As
a result, their needs are overlooked both in the immediate relief as well as
long-term reconstruction."

"Women are poorer to start with, and a natural disaster means they're taking
care of their extended family as well the orphans left behind after the
disaster," Sharma Fox says. "But there are clear lessons learned about how to
help them rebuild: give them a loan to start a home-based business. Provide
childcare when you provide job training. Ensure that restrooms in relief camps
are close by so they don't have to risk violence when they walk to them at
night. Sadly, billions of dollars spent distributing food or rebuilding roads
and bridges often don't reach women because they don't match up with their
needs."

For ten years, she and Women Thrive have been working with legislators on the
Hill to put the force of U.S. foreign policy into helping these poorest women
and their children rise out of poverty. Women Thrive also has on-the-ground
experience working with women following the Asian tsunami, and successfully
advocated with Congress to set aside special funds to be directed to women in
tsunami-affected countries, helping women in countries like Thailand and
Indonesia. According to Sharma Fox, "Reconstruction must focus on women,
because if you teach a woman to fish, everybody eats."

THE TRUTH IS:

-- Statistically, 7 in 10 of the billion poorest people in the world are
women and children, many of whom live on $1/day or less. Natural
disasters always hit the poorest hard: as the nation saw with
Hurricane
Katrina.
-- Violence against women significantly increase in the immediate
aftermath
of natural disasters.
-- Disasters make women poorer and increase their workload: and since
they
most often don't legally own assets, including the homes they live
in, they find it harder to claim compensation.
-- When assistance is provided to a 'head of household' it very
often does not reach women.
-- Natural disasters often push impoverished families to sell their girl
children into trafficking for basic survival.

SOURCE Women Thrive Worldwide

Leslie Levine, +1-847-205-9853, leslie@drazninpr.com, or Anu Palan,
+1-202-884-8399, apalan@womenthrive.org, both of Women Thrive Worldwide