Women suffer most in aftermath of natural disasters, report says

From last year's tsunami in Asia to Hurricane Katrina in the United States, recent natural disasters have taken a particularly harsh toll on women, according to a new report.

Women face a variety of hardships during and after natural disasters, according to the report, "Caught in the Storm," released Tuesday by the San Francisco-based Global Fund for Women, an international human rights group. These include increased incidence of rape and domestic abuse, insufficient focus on women's health needs by disaster relief groups, and the exclusion of women from critical rebuilding and reconstruction efforts.

"We know that in the best of times, women have a hard time ensuring their economic security and protecting their livelihood," said Kavita Ramdas, president of the Global Fund, in a phone interview. "In the context of disasters, that vulnerability gets exacerbated."

The report's findings were based on firsthand accounts provided by women in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Guatemala, Pakistan and the U.S.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WOMEN_NATURAL_DISASTERS_CAOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-13-17-49-00

or bushie's war (man made disaster) on Iraq.