Groups highlight women's roles in Melissa recovery: 'Not only among the most affected but are also essential to … resilience'

As Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on October 28 as a Category 5 storm, communities there and across the Caribbean were already preparing for destructive winds and severe flooding. 

Hurricanes are a natural phenomenon, but rising global temperatures and sea levels — driven by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels — have supercharged them. Now, many coastal areas are repeatedly hit with threats to safety, infrastructure, essential services, clean water supplies, and food systems, with historically marginalized groups facing disproportionate impacts. 

The outlet CiberCuba reported that authorities in Santiago de Cuba distributed rice in advance of the storm, prioritizing pregnant people and children. Some residents were concerned, however, about the lack of food access for those outside the city. According to an October 31 update from the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, about 2 million people in Cuba alone "may need assistance."

With hundreds of thousands displaced, UN Women has said it is working in step with governments and partners to prioritize protection from gender-based violence in shelters, access to sexual and reproductive health care, food and clean water supplies, and women-led frontline response."Women are not only among the most affected but are also essential to recovery and resilience," UN Women said in a press release. 

Days earlier, the organization CARE described its own preparations in coordination with local groups, such as the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers. “Rural women are the backbone of our economy," Tamisha Lee, president of JNRWP, said in the release. "And their capacity to recover must be the immediate and driving priority of this humanitarian response.”

In the wake of heavy rains and flooding, the official death toll has risen to 65 as of November 3, according to USA Today, but numbers across the region are expected to rise as a fuller picture of the devastation becomes clear. With recovery efforts moving forward, UN Women noted that it is "investing in women-led civil society organizations that are on the frontline of the response."

Women and girls have also been playing a crucial role in documenting and sharing their stories. Roxanne Hutchinson, a surveillance operator at Jamaica's Ministry of National Security, told CBS News that it was "very scary outside" as the electricity went out and the storm moved in, noting her concerns for major flooding in the Black River area. 

There, OCHA has observed, floodwaters could raise the risk of waterborne diseases, which can pose unique infection threats to menstruating and pregnant people. 

Local health officials are also warning that the standing water could increase the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in the aftermath of the storm. Sherika Whitelocke-Ballingsingh, head of the Caribbean Poison Information Network, told The Gleaner on October 31 about the concerns of dengue and malaria, which, in pregnant people, may be associated with complications such as pre-term birth and low birthweight.

With this in mind, not only access to menstrual products, contraceptives, abortion care, and maternal health supplies might be seen as a part of the gender-responsive and rights-based care that organizations like UN Women regularly call for in the wake of hurricanes. Strengthening the availability of resources such as clean and covered water supplies, safe insect repellents, and effective mosquito nets as well as improving access to and further development of effective vaccines — with more that are safe for use in pregnancy and resilient to extreme temperatures — could also be seen as a part of gender-responsive recovery efforts.