SEMINAR: Listen to Ammal Awadallah, Executive Director of the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association (PFPPA) and get a first hand account on the situation for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Gaza and the West Bank. The complete program for the seminar will be published shortly.

Program

15:00 Welcome by Tor-Hugne Olsen, Executive Director Sex og Politikk

15:10 Ammal Awadallah, Executive Director PFPPA: SRHR and the protractive crisis in Palestine

15:40 Kristin Bjorå, Executive Director KFUK-KFUM about their work on SRHR in Palestine

15:50 How to improve SRHR in the immediate and long term in Palestine?

Panel: Ammal Awadallah (PFPPA), Kristin Bjorå (KFUK-KFUM), and Nina Strøm (Norad), including Q&A with the audience.

Facilitated by Jon Lomøy, President Sex og Politikk

16:30 Closing comments by Tora Torang, Sex og Politikk

Amid the terrifying devastation experienced through a humanitarian crisis, people first and foremost need safety and protection. Sexual and reproductive health services are lifesaving, and can prevent further suffering, however, in times of crisis, they are often neglected.

However, today Palestinians are systematically denied sexual and reproductive health and rights. Their health system has been repeatedly targeted and depleted by the Israeli occupation, and the more it disintegrates, the more it will hinder the full realization of these rights. Women who are pregnant and exposed to armed conflict have higher rates of miscarriage, stillbirths, prematurity, congenital abnormalities, and other adverse outcomes. There is also an increased risk for excess neonatal deaths and stillbirths due to a range of reasons including inadequate health facility childbirth along with lack of age-appropriate breastfeeding practices, inadequate antenatal care and food insecurity further exacerbated by the relentless bombings.

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Gaza is currently estimated at around 1.9 million (the majority of the population), with a large part of that population living in overcrowded and under-supplied shelters with food, water, and fuel running out – and basic and life-sustaining services becoming more inaccessible by the hour. Anyone who has been forced to flee or who lives in an area of active fighting is particularly vulnerable, even more so women, girls, adolescents and structurally marginalized groups, including those experiencing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination (MIFD).

Ammal Awadallah, Executive Director of the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association (PFPPA) will share her experiences and recommendations from living and working with sexual and reproductive health and rights the last 18 years.

PFPPA was established in Jerusalem in 1964 and is locally registered as an independent, non-profit and non-governmental associations. PFPPA is known for the provision of comprehensive and diverse services with delivery points located in the West Bank Areas of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and Halhoul, in addition to one in the Gaza Strip, which has yet to be relocated after it was destroyed following an Israeli airstrike on 8 October.

Furthermore, and in cooperation with local partners, PFPPA is also responsible for three safe spaces to provide Gender Based Violence (GBV) related services in the Jerusalem area.

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