Women and girls pay high price in DR Congo Ebola outbreak

This is evident in the city of Bunia, epicentre of the crisis, said Dr. Setcheme Mongbo, UN Women Representative in the DRC, speaking on Friday following a recent visit to the city.

"Women are not only present in health facilities as attendants, but also in communities and homes where they care for the sick, provide them with food and water, and even participate in washing corpses as well as funeral activities," she said, speaking from Kinshasa to journalists in Geneva.

According to Dr. Mongbo, the division of care and responsibilities at home largely reflects the Ebola transmission chain. That situation, she said, is what puts women and girls at the greatest risk.

Official data shows that more than 54 percent of confirmed Ebola patients in the DRC are women. Girls make up 51 percent of those in the 10 to 17 age group.

Dr. Mongbo said the effects also spread to children, since when women get sick, dependent children are directly affected.

"Women and girls are the ones who take care of their children and siblings without protective equipment," she said, explaining that they often continue to provide care even when someone is seriously ill.

Among the stories that touched Dr. Mongbo was that of a woman who shared her fear of going to an Ebola treatment centre.

The woman said entering the medical facility “felt like a one-way journey - being separated from her children and unsure of whether she was ever going to return home.”

That fear, according to Dr. Mongbo, is compounded by stigma, the possibility of abuse, exclusion from children as well as concerns about their own safety.

The women she met in Bunia also explained to her that they often put the health and safety of children and their families before their own lives.

Dr. Mongbo said there is also the possibility of community deaths that may not be included in the official Ebola statistics. “I heard stories of women who fell ill and died in their homes after some of them made statements calling for help but got no response,” she said.

Community members told her that “four women died at home in a single day with no official record. And we are not able to verify whether they had subsequently captured those figures.”

She cited latest data which show that two-thirds of the deaths reported in a 24-hour period occurred in communities, rather than medical facilities.

This situation, she said, increases the risk of cases and deaths not being handled properly as well as being absent from official outbreak response statistics.

In addition to the risk of infection, the outbreak is affecting access to essential healthcare for women.

Dr. Mongbo said women are increasingly losing out on opportunities to access reproductive and maternal health services, when access to such services was already limited before the outbreak.

The problem is also compounded by decades of conflict, insecurity and poor road infrastructure which makes regular transport to some areas difficult or impossible.

The outbreak has also affected women's livelihoods.

According to Dr. Mongbo, women make up a significant number of the traders in the affected areas. Travel restrictions and border closures – measures that could be crucial in controlling the outbreak – have deprived many women of their sources of income.

Women traders told her that their daily income had decreased by between 20 and 30 dollars.

While that amount may seem small, the reduction is “leaving them unable to feed their families and children, making them even more vulnerable to health infections.”

Dr. Mongbo said women-led organizations play an important role in the Ebola response because they have built trust within the community over the years.

However, she said a UN Women study shows that 86 per cent of the women-led organizations surveyed said they had not received any form of funding for Ebola response, with nine out of 10 not being involved in decision-making.

Dr. Mongbo said UN Women supports the Ebola response in the DRC by ensuring the needs, risks and special capacities of women and girls are taken into account in efforts to address the outbreak.

The measures include working with women leaders to raise awareness about Ebola and ways to protect themselves, increasing women's participation in the response and preventing gender-based violence.

She said UN Women is ready to launch a comprehensive gender response strategy against Ebola next Tuesday.

For Dr. Mongbo, the message from Bunia is clear: Women are not only Ebola survivors, but an important part of the solution, therefore, “women and their organizations are key to stopping the Ebola outbreak in the DRC.”