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December 2005

the

for

GLOBALFUND

WOMEN

Caught in the Storm:

The Impact of NaturalDisasters on Women

By Lin Chew and Kavita N.Ramdas

“When the wave came,I grabbed both my children in my arms and triedto run,but the wave caught me,and I was forced to choose between mysix-year-old and my baby or else we would have all perished.I can still see the look in his eyes when I let go of him.”

—Sri Lankan mother

Indonesia.© Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos

LIN CHEW

,a former Board member of the GlobalFund for Women,is the currentActivist inResidence.Inthe Spring of 2005,Lin traveledto Sri Lanka and Aceh,Indonesia,the regions of Asia most severelyaffected by the tsunami.She metwith women’s organizations thathad distributed immediate relief sup-plies and gathered information onwomen’s conditions in the aftermathof the disaster.Lin provided criticalguidance to the Global Fund asgrants were made to women’s organ-izations struggling to help womenrebuild their lives and livelihoods.Lin Chew is a co-founder of theFoundation Against Trafficking inWomen,the Netherlands,and of theGlobal Alliance Against Traffic inWomen,based in Bangkok,Thailand.

The Global Fund for Women

provides longterm support tolocal groups in regions affectedby natural disasters withgrants that help communitiesrebuild,prevent sexual vio-lence,and ensure that womenand children are accordedtheir full human rights.Whilethe Global Funddoes not con-duct direct reliefefforts,weinform grantees in disasterregions that they may use anymoneys from open grants toaddress such crises.The Global Fund for Womenis the largest foundation inthe world that focuses exclu-sively on advancing women'srights internationally.Grantsmade by the Global Fundexpand the choices availableto women and girls,securingtheir efforts to strengtheneconomic independence,increase access to educationand prevent violence.Since1987,the Global Fund hasawarded over $44 million toseed,strengthen and linknearly 3,000 groups in 162countries.

More information is available insix languages at

www.globalfundforwomen.org

KAVITA N.RAMDAS,

an expert ininternationalwomen’s rights,has served asPresident andCEO of theGlobal Fund for Women since1996.She has won numerous awardsfor her vision and advancement of an inclusive philanthropy in whichdonors and grantees are treated asequal partners.Through her leader-ship,annual grantmaking has risenover 500%,and Global Fund assetshave increased from $6 million tomore than $20 million.As President,she has overseen the establishmentof the largest endowment ever dedi-catedexclusively to women’s rightsinternationally.

DEDICATION

We dedicate this report to the courageous women inSoutheast Asia,Guatemala,Pakistan and the US,who,despitetheir own painful losses,reached out to help others in their communities.We especially wish to acknowledge the 60 braverepresentatives of the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami AffectedWomen,whose work informed this report.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Caught in the Storm:

The Impact of NaturalDisasters on Women

Through the last year,a series of natural dis-asters have left the world reeling.Tsunamis inAsia and Africa killed over 200,000 and leftmillions orphaned,homeless,grief-strickenand traumatized.

In the United States,Hurricane Katrina displaced over one millionpeople and more than 1,200 died.InGuatemala,Hurricane Stan left at least 652dead and 398 missing,wiped out crops androads,and emtombed whole villages in mud.

The massive earthquake that struck Kashmirkilled at least 73,000,severely wounded as many,and left up to 3.3 million homeless,many toface the brutal Himalayan winter with no shelter at all.

These disasters occurred invastly different places and among different populations,yet they share acommon factor:during and afterwards,women and children sufferedmost.

That women are disproportionately affected by disasters is indisputable

—yet it con-tinues to be ignored:by governments,and by many non-governmental agencies involved inrelief and reconstruction efforts.

The Global Fund for Women has provided grants and worked in partner-ship with women struggling to rebuild their lives and communities after anumber of natural disasters

including the 2004 tsunamis,the 2005 Kashmir earth-quake and Hurricanes Stan and Mitch (which struck Central America in 1998).The GlobalFund for Women is the largest foundation in the world focusing exclusively on internationalwomen’s rights—and our experience grows out of work with 31 women’s organizations in ninecountries enduring natural disasters.If not for local women’s groups,the aftermath of thesedisasters as they impact women would have remained hidden and unaddressed.We havelearned from them how traditional relief efforts fail women,the suffering that results,and howthis failure could have been avoided.They have made us painfully aware that although humanitywill continue to face natural disasters,we can act to avoid the often politically motivatedhumanitarian crises as well.Through this report,we share what we have learned from directgrantmaking to women’s rights groups during and after emergency situations.

“At a Glance:Countries Hit,”BBC News,Wednesday,June 22,2005;Barry Bearak,“Apocalypse on the Horizon,”

New York Times Magazine

,November 27,2005.

Report “Solidaridad con Nuestro Pueblo,”Union Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas,October 2005.

Paul Watson,“Only With a Tent Can We Survive Winter,”

Los Angeles Times,

October 25,2005.See also “Pakistan’s Official Quake Toll at 73,000,”LosAngeles Times,November 3,2005.

The World Health Organization acknowledges that women and children are disproportionately affected by natural disasters.See “Gender and Women’sHealth:Gender and Disaster,”WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia,January 19,2005.

CAUGHT IN THE STORM

the

GLOBALFUND

for

WOMEN

Indonesia.© Lin Chew