Mr. Chairman, vice-chairs and committee members, thank you for inviting UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, to address the committee today. Moreover, thank you very much for Canada's continued generous support to UNFPA, especially for humanitarian assistance and notably for our COVID response last year.
Imagine a girl. She's 12 years old. Due to fighting in her region, she has just fled with her family the only home she has ever known. This 12-year-old girl loves school. She dreams of finishing her studies, finding decent work and starting a family when she's ready. Now her hope is fading. Her family of six is confined to a tent in a makeshift refugee camp, and she's wondering when she will return to school. Many nights she goes to bed hungry. She lives in fear of violence and of COVID in the crowded encampment. Little does she know that she might never go back to school. She doesn't know that, in a few months, she's going to be married off to lessen the family's economic burden. With no contraception and no say, early childbirth is predictably going to be her fate, and soon she and her children may be trapped in merciless poverty that will ripple across generations.
The COVID pandemic has put into sharp focus existing inequalities and the disproportionate impact of crisis on women and on girls. I see gender-based violence skyrocketing. Sexual and reproductive health services are being disrupted, and there's an increased need for mental health services, the psychosocial support women and girls need. Yes, child marriage, female genital mutilation and adolescent pregnancy are all on the rise, and we know that adolescent trafficking and coercion soar in these contexts.
Being in a humanitarian crisis can be devastating on its own. Now imagine being a pregnant 15-year-old girl displaced by conflict and having to give birth in a war zone, or having a miscarriage while coping with the trauma of displacement or disaster. Imagine this happens every day: getting your menstrual period for the first time and having no sanitary supplies.
We know from past epidemics in humanitarian and fragile settings that when health care services deemed unrelated to the epidemic response directly, such as sexual and reproductive health services, are discontinued, this can result in more deaths than the epidemic itself. In fact, the lack of access to quality sexual and reproductive health services among women of childbearing age is a leading cause of death and disability.
Countries affected by fragility in crisis account for more than 50% of deaths during childbirth worldwide. Sexual and reproductive health services and supplies are not a luxury. They are essential. They are lifesaving, and they must be part of the COVID response. The situation is especially devastating for adolescents, even before COVID-19, who face greater social and logistical hurdles to access health care and limited access to social protection programs.
As the pandemic heightens these challenges, adolescents need confidential sexual and reproductive health care. They are asking for high-quality, accurate information about sex, and this is critical. Last year, UNFPA, again, thanks to Canada, was able to distribute more than seven million dignity kits, which contain essential hygiene items. We helped nearly 50 million women and young people access sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence prevention and response services. We provided PPE, personal protective equipment, to health workers in more than 100 countries. As you know, they are predominantly female.
Our COVID response has reaffirmed our strategic focus on ending unmet need for contraception, ending needless deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Throughout the pandemic, we have been at the forefront of efforts to galvanize action for women, and now is the time for that healing and for that empowerment.
Thank you again to the government and the people of Canada for their generous contributions in making a difference.