Story

Over 100 days on, UNFPA and Partners Continue to Support the Earthquake-affected Women and Girls of Myanmar

22 July 2025

Caption: Rubbles in the streets of Mandalay, heavily hit by the March earthquake

Photo: © UNFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

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Walking or driving through the streets of Mandalay, rubble from buildings, homes, hospitals, and schools still encroaches on public spaces, leaving people with fear in their hearts and concerns of another earthquake strike.

“The 7.7 magnitude earthquake shattered our homes and lives, but it is we women and girls who carry the heaviest burden. Even after 100 days, the urgent needs for our health, safety, and protection still remain,” said Ni Ni, 32, a woman from the earthquake affected community in Mandalay.

Caption: Yamin Thet, 22 years old, with her newborn baby of two months, born one month after the earthquake in Mandalay

Photo: © UNFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

At the Mandalay health clinic supported by UNFPA and in close collaboration with the Myanmar Medical Association (MMA), Yamin Thet receives maternal health, emergency, obstetric, antenatal, and postnatal care from medical doctors and health workers. The clinic serves the community affected by the earthquake that struck Myanmar in March 2025, 100 days ago, which left over 17 million people in urgent need of assistance. Among these are 4.6 million women of reproductive age (15-49 years old) and more than 1.5 million adolescent girls (10-19 years old).

"Until my six months of pregnancy, I was regularly going to the health clinic for antenatal check-ups”, Yamin shares. “When the earthquake hit us, I was really scared and found refuge with my mom since it was too hard for me to move around."

At the health clinic operated by Dr Pyone Pyone Than, Yamin received a cash voucher assistance to cover her medical expenses, meals, and transportation costs to visit the nearby hospital for a safe delivery of her baby one month after the earthquake, when the future and health of many remained uncertain, and fears of aftershocks persisted.

Caption: Doctor Pyone Pyone Than provides antenatal and postnatal care for pregnant women, during and after the earthquake in Mandalay

Photo: © UNFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

“On a weekly basis, I receive three or four pregnant women, and I provide healthcare for them until referral to the nearby hospital for a safe newborn delivery," Doctor Pyone Pyone says.

She continues, “When the earthquake hit, the needs increased as there was significant disruption to both information and service delivery. We, healthcare staff, could not locate patients, and patients could neither find nor access health clinics, while there were not enough health service providers available to support them.”

Thanks to UNFPA, I was followed by good medical doctors, who accompanied me to a healthy and safe baby delivery journey. In the middle of destruction, there was a new light coming into my life.

Yamin Thet

In addition to the needs of a higher stock of family planning short-term contraceptive methods, women and girls are showing post-traumatic stress symptoms, including insomnia, loss of appetite, needing more than medicines to heal the wounds of family members and home loss.

On the outskirts of Mandalay, a Women and Girls Safe Space operated with the support of UNFPA, is filled with chatty women wearing their thanaka (a paste used by women in Myanmar for skin health) and interacting with one another. They share their drawings and handcrafts during a recreational Friday session that keeps them active, joyful, and relaxed for the whole morning, while their children are in school.

Caption: Psychological first aid and mental health and psychosocial support session in Mandalay, in one of the UNFPA-supported Women Safe Spaces

Photo: © NFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

“This Women Safe Space feels like heaven to me. It gives me the opportunity to share my feelings and emotions with other women, especially after the earthquake. I am still very worried about my children and my husband, who is out all day working as a construction worker,” shares Lwin Lwin San, attending the handicrafts and drawing session in one of the Women Safe Spaces in Mandalay.

Caption: Lwin Lwin San, participant in one of the UNFPA-sessions on mental health and psychosocial support and life-skills training in Mandalay

Photo: © UNFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

“This women safe space fills my mind and soul with correct information and knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and rights, protection and prevention of gender-based violence and relaxing activities that alleviate my fear and suffering post-earthquake”

Lwin Lwin San, on the services at the Women Safe Space in Mandalay

More than words and emotional support, UNFPA is also delivering practical solutions to the women and girls, affected by the earthquake.

In the temporary displaced camps of Mandalay and Sagaing, UNFPA has been distributing women’s dignity kit for affected women and girls at reproductive age, since the start of the earthquake.

Caption: Hopeful, strong and resilient, Tin Zar Aye proudly poses with her recently received dignity kit, in one of the temporary-displaced camps in Mandalay

Photo: © Myanmar UNFPA/Gaia Paradiso

"I find joy, strength, and determination to keep smiling for and at my family, and my two children"

Tin Zar Aye

“I find joy, hope, strength and determination to keep smiling for and at my family and my two children” shares Tin Zar Aye, whose smile is contagious “I know that the situation will be better soon, I keep on dreaming for a brighter future, for all of us”.

Tin Zar Aye, notwithstanding having lived for the past three months in a temporary displaced camp, due to the earthquake, keeps the courage on, with dignity, confidently walking in the camps and helping other women in line for the dignity kit distribution.

Caption: A moment of information sharing, where UNFPA staff explains the content of the women dignity kit, in one of the temporary displaced camps in Mandalay

Photo: © UNFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

"The items are extremely useful, and, materialistically speaking, they make us feel beautiful, clean, and ready to go out in the world, every day”, Tin Zar Aye keeps on sharing “I especially like the shampoo and the comb for my long hair, the mirror to look at myself and feel shiny, and the toothpaste and toothbrush, to keep on smiling”.

Caption: The content of the UNFPA Myanmar locally procured items included in each dignity kit, that women and girls receive during the earthquake response distribution. In addition to the general UNFPA dignity kit, there are eight additional products, localized and adapted to the needs and desires of women and girls in Myanmar. The additional items are mirror, thanaka (paste for women’ skin), blanket, nail cutter, long ji (long skirts for women), flip flops, T-shirt and umbrella.

Photo: © UNFPA Myanmar/Gaia Paradiso

Since more than 100 days after the earthquake, UNFPA and its partners have remained on the ground in Sagaing, Mandalay, Shan, and southeastern Myanmar, providing assistance to those most affected. To date, over 50,000 people have received sexual and reproductive health, protection, gender-based violence, and mental health and psychosocial support through UNFPA programmes.

UNFPA thanks the generous financial contributions, supporting the Myanmar earthquake response, coming from the Government of Australia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

As the humanitarian crisis worsens and the monsoon season begins, flexible funding is urgently required to maintain essential services, particularly Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRH) and protection from Gender-based Violence (GBV).