In public health emergencies, whether pandemics such as COVID-19, or with escalating health needs among refugees amidst conflict, gender is often factored in far too late. A new short film by Matahari Global Solutions, with the support of San Francisco University’s Gender in Public Health Emergencies programme, highlights three examples from around the world on this:
- the story of Nafisat Isa Salisu, a community health worker from Abuja, Nigeria, on how she had to purchase forceps and other materials to help deliver babies in communities during the COVID-19 pandemic when maternal health services were unavailable,
- the stories of Nadia and Gisma, two Sudanese refugees displaced to South Sudan who continue to have inadequate health service provision, and who have faced trauma from violence,
- the story of Erina Tahir, a trans woman in Malaysia who emphasised the need for health workers to use the preferred names of trans people to increase the likelihood of trans people accessing necessary health services.
