Funded by the European Union, UNFPA is helping ensure that reproductive health medicines, commodities and supplies reach health facilities and Women Friendly Spaces serving Rohingya refugees and host communities.
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — When Hamida Begum arrived at Friendship Hospital in Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar with her infant daughter, she was still worried. Her baby had been born small, and Hamida feared what might happen if her daughter became ill.
“I was worried about my baby’s health and my own when I gave birth to her,” Hamida recalls. “She was really skinny. I kept thinking, what would we do if my baby became ill?”
At the hospital, Hamida and her baby received postnatal checks. A Mama Kit was prepared for her to take home, providing essential items to support a mother and newborn after delivery.
For Hamida, the support brought reassurance at a vulnerable moment.
“I feel safe now,” she says. “I feel that my baby and I are being looked after well.”
Across Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char, this project is supporting UNFPA to keep essential reproductive health supplies available at service delivery points. These supplies help facilities provide timely maternal health care, emergency obstetric support, voluntary family planning and health services for survivors of gender-based violence.
In the Rohingya response, maternal health remains a serious concern. In 2024, 46 maternal deaths and 491 perinatal deaths were recorded, and in 2025, three mothers continued to die every month in the camps. Although maternal deaths fell between 2021 and 2025, preventable causes such as postpartum haemorrhage, infection, obstructed labour and complications from high blood pressure in pregnancy continue to place mothers and newborns at risk.
This is why uninterrupted access to essential supplies matters.
Through the project, UNFPA supports the procurement, warehousing, transportation and last-mile distribution of reproductive health commodities. The supplies are distributed through registered service points based on need, using UNFPA’s stock management system to help prevent gaps and stock-outs.
For women like Hamida, this supply chain becomes visible in a simple moment: a midwife checking her baby, essential items being prepared, and a mother leaving the hospital not feeling alone.
At UNFPA-supported health facilities, providers use these supplies as part of routine and emergency care. Dr. Nitu Rani Kundu, a Medical Officer working with UNFPA implementing partner RTMI in the camps, says many women previously struggled to seek antenatal care.
“Due to various difficulties in this camp, some mothers previously did not seek antenatal care, but now they are receiving it,” she says.
The services are wide-ranging.
“We ensure eight antenatal check-ups here. We also try to ensure facility-based deliveries and provide postnatal care afterwards. Additionally, we conduct cervical cancer screening, provide family planning methods, and deal with other reproductive health-related diseases,” Dr. Kundu added.
The action supports basic emergency obstetric and newborn care services at health facilities and one comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care facility across camps and surrounding host communities. When complications cannot be managed at a primary facility, referral pathways help connect women to more advanced care.
At Friendship Hospital, Joshna Aktar, 23, a mother from the host community, held her three-day-old baby after receiving care. Her experience reflects an important part of the response: services reach both Rohingya refugees and host communities.
“The doctors here are truly kind and caring. I felt genuinely cared for when I came here,” Joshna said.
The project also supports integrated sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence response through Women Friendly Spaces, where midwives provide basic reproductive health services, voluntary family planning, emergency referrals and health support for survivors. These spaces help women and girls access confidential care in settings where privacy and trust are essential.
The European Union-funded action aims to reach nearly 180,000 people. By strengthening commodity security and last-mile distribution, the project helps ensure that health facilities and Women Friendly Spaces have the supplies they need to continue life-saving services.
For Hamida, the impact is personal. It is not a project plan or a supply list. It is the check-up her baby received, the Mama Kit prepared for her family, and the feeling that someone was ready to help when she needed care.
