Effects > Adults > Children

"A refugee mother and her teenage daughter venture through the forest surrounding their camp in search of fuel. During the walk home, they are attacked by several uniformed men, stripped naked, and gang raped for several hours. Two months later, the daughter discovers that she is pregnant.”

"A displaced woman living on the border of Thailand and Burma visits a traditional birth attendant to find out if she is pregnant. The traditional birth attendant inserts a stick into her vagina and uterus "to make her period come". Two weeks later, the woman starts to bleed, has a fever, and at 3 months she loses the baby from an unsafe abortion."

Many women are left as refugees because their families are torn apart during war. Most of the men are either sent to war or unjustly killed by the oppressors. The women are displaced, left unprotected and often become victims of rape and torment. In Sierra Leone, a 33 year old woman turned to prostitution to support her and her two children after her husband is killed in the civil war. She chooses not to use protection with fear that she won’t be able to ask for a good price. Women like her often don’t receive enough health care, education, job opportunities, support from community and are pressed to endure extreme poverty. Thus, they have no other choice than to practice risky sexual habits that sometimes cause unwanted pregnancies which more than often lead to unsafe abortions. There have been high rates of detected sexually transmitted diseases in refugee women because they are so vulnerable during times of need.
           

Source:Krause, Sandra. "Medicine and Conflict." Reproductive health for refugees. Dec 2002. ProQuest. 21 Jul 2006 <http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=272142301&Fmt=4&clientId =8991&RQT=309&VName=PQD&cfc=1>.