Community Voices: Healing Minds, Restoring Dignity of Women and Girls Six Months Since Myanmar’s Earthquake

In March 2025, a powerful earthquake hit central Myanmar. Buildings turned to rubble, bridges collapsed, roads cracked, and river crossings fell silent—severing accessibility to essential services across Mandalay, Sagaing as well as the Southern Shan and Southeast region of the country. Markets closed, clinics were damaged, and families sought safety in temporary shelters. As aftershocks and the monsoon season followed, and daily stresses multiplied—especially for women and girls, whose access to healthcare, protection, and livelihoods was abruptly cut off.

Six months on, recovery is measured not only in terms of repaired infrastructure but also in the healing of minds and the restoration of dignity and safety for affected communities, including women and girls. When the ground finally stilled, Theint Theint Swe’s work vanished. “After the earthquake, finding work became difficult and we faced financial hardship,” says the 23-year-old from Mandalay. “When the bridge collapsed, transportation was further delayed, causing many inconveniences.”

Before the disaster, she stitched blouses and longyi. “I used to sew clothes at home to earn some money. However, that is no longer feasible, as nobody comes to get clothes tailored anymore.” The loss of income came with quieter burdens. “Due to the fear of another earthquake and numerous difficulties, I am experiencing various mental and emotional hardships.”

Theint chose to step forward. “As a volunteer, I stepped in to help where I could. I attended training sessions on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) awareness at the AFXB Myanmar’s floating (boat) clinic, and I share health knowledge in the village as much as I can. I can also now connect those in need with service providers. While helping others, I was able to overcome my own stress, and this boost in my morale is the reward I have gained. Now is the time when we all need to work together, rather than rely on individual strength.”

Her story reflects how UNFPA-supported volunteers are helping restore community links between women, youth, and essential SRH and protection services, ensuring that information and care continue to flow even where facilities have been damaged.

Across the river, 45-year-old Mya Thida had to sleep under a makeshift roof. “Due to the earthquake, I lost some of my relatives and my home,” she says. “For women, it was not safe to stay in a makeshift shelter. Our village has previously suffered from floods, and now the earthquake disaster; facing a series of natural calamities one after another means that community members, especially women, are enduring very difficult times. There is still a significant need for not only their basic healthcare but also psychosocial support.”

One early lifeline support was the clinic that arrived by water. “For healthcare, we rely on the mobile clinic (the floating clinic),” she explains. “The dignity kits (personal hygiene items for women and girls, including sanitary napkins, hand soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, and underwear) are extremely useful. Receiving such essential care gives us a sense of dignity.”

Supported by UNFPA and partners, these mobile and floating clinics deliver integrated sexual and reproductive health services, including antenatal and postnatal care, family planning, and safe delivery, while also providing referrals for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). Such care ensures that women can give birth safely and maintain health and dignity even amid crisis conditions.

In nearby Innwa, 25-year-old Shine Moh Moh describes how livelihoods stalled. “Before the earthquake, women in the village could earn income for their families by working on bamboo wattle and daub walls and fences. Due to the earthquake, the bridge collapsed and waterways were blocked, so we can no longer access essential raw materials like bamboo, and our work has ceased. The number of unemployed women has increased, which is detrimental to the community.”

Hope arrived with a door that stayed open. “During this crisis, I was extremely happy when the Women and Girls Centre opened. Such a place is very much needed,” Shine says. “At this Centre, we gain valuable women’s health knowledge, and we also learn about gender-based violence and women's rights. For women like us, who face various mental stresses for different reasons, we can confide in each other, and a mental health and psychosocial expert at the Centre helps us learn effective tips and exercises to manage stress.”

The knowledge hasn’t stopped with Shine. “I have come to understand more that only with good mental health can we maintain physical health, and I am able to share this knowledge with our family members and community acquaintances. Now, vocational skills training is available at the Centre, which greatly helps us to regain an income and rebuild our lives. The Women and Girls Centre is an invaluable resource for women in our community affected by the earthquake, helping us to restore our well-being in many aspects.”

Through these Centres, UNFPA and partners integrate GBV response, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and livelihood skills, creating safe spaces where women and girls can access information, protection, and recovery opportunities under one roof.

None of these activities of aid organisations can move without community volunteers—people who know the ground. In Tada-U, 35-year-old volunteer Zin Min Htet has become that bridge. “Although I personally endured the earthquake's impact, I also serve as a volunteer helping those in need within my community. From immediately after the earthquake until now, I have been connecting aid organizations involved in emergency response and recovery efforts with those who need help the most, ensuring assistance reaches them. As a community member, this gives me great satisfaction. For aid to be delivered swiftly and effectively on the ground, it is crucial to work with people who know who the most vulnerable are and where the most needed areas are.”

Volunteers like Zin Min Htet are the backbone of UNFPA’s humanitarian response, linking local knowledge with technical teams to ensure lifesaving SRH, GBV, and MHPSS services reach the last mile.

As recovery continues, these community-driven efforts are restoring not just services but dignity. With UNFPA’s support, women and girls in central Myanmar are rebuilding their health, safety, and hope, ensuring that resilience begins with protection and care for all.

Since the earthquake, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) and partners have extended lifesaving services in hard-hit areas of Mandalay and Sagaing by:

• Running mobile clinics that provide integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH). Gender-based Violence (GBV) and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services with referrals, so essential healthcare remains accessible.
• Operating Women and Girls Centres that offer Gender-based Violence (GBV) prevention and response services and mental health and psychosocial support, including psychological first aid and group sessions. These activities help survivors regain confidence and rebuild social connections.
• Supplying essential reproductive-health commodities and clean-delivery items, and distributing dignity kits—or, where safer and more practical, cash assistance for dignity items so women can give birth safely and maintain hygiene, protection, and dignity in crisis conditions.
• Building frontline capacity through targeted training, including Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) and the Clinical Management of Rape (CMR), and strengthening coordination through GBV safety audits, service mapping, and updated referral pathways to ensure no survivor is left without care.

This work is made possible with support from the Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), whose partnership helps UNFPA sustain integrated sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and mental health and psychosocial support services for women and girls in earthquake-affected communities.

*This story was originally published on the UNFPA Myanmar website.