MIGRATION

Within the framework of the migration project aiming at improving the access of migrant populations to quality and local SHR and GBV services, UNFPA supports 10 service delivery points attached to 08 NGOs: 5 SRH service delivery points and 5 care centers for women victims of violence.

From July to September 2020, UNFPA Tunisia, through our partnerships, provided 2371 consultations divided into 1042 social consultations, 101 psychological consultations, 37 medical consultations and 1191 SRH consultations.

1159 migrant women and 304 men benefited from these consultations in Tunis, Sfax and Medenine; including 219 migrant women victims of violence who benefited from integrated care within GBV care centers in Tunisia.

Finally, at the level of health service delivery points, 1836 condoms, 1570 lubricants and 1389 hygiene kits were distributed.

As per the last quarter of 2020, UNFPA plans to support 4 new health service points run by two NGOs and operationalize the partnership with 06 SRH centers (under the National Board for Family and Population), that are currently being rehabilitated for better integration of services dedicated to migrants in Tunisia.

From October 7 to October 9, 2020, UNFPA Tunisia organized a training workshop for frontline service providers in the South-eastern region, on the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP). 15 health service providers including doctors, nurses, midwives and psychologists underwent 3 days of intensive training on the different components of the MISP.

The training started with the presentation of the coordination mechanism of humanitarian intervention, the respective responsibilities of the various international, national and United Nations organizations, before addressing the different objectives of the MISP namely:

• •Ensure coordination for the effective implementation of the MISP
• •Prevent and manage the consequences of sexual violence
• •Reduce the transmission of HIV and STIs
• •Prevent maternal and neonatal mortality and excess morbidity
• •Plan comprehensive sexual and reproductive care, integrated with primary health care, whenever the situation allows.

The participants were selected from the pool of service providers in the border towns of Rameda, Medenine, Djerba and Tataouine where the influx of migrants and refugees will embark in the event of a humanitarian crisis.

This training is part of the emergency preparedness plan of UNFPA Tunisia; and it builds on the recommendations of the previous training on renewing the pool of interveners and targeting young actors and people at primary service delivery points.

One of the main objectives of the partnership project on improving the access of migrants to SRH services and the management of GBV cases is to improve knowledge of these rights holders about their rights and the services available.

Thus, we have supported our partners for the implementation of awareness-raising activities and we have been able to reach a large number of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, through awareness-raising sessions, training of peer educators and awareness campaign.

During the third quarter, 21 awareness sessions were held allowing the direct outreach of 580 migrants / asylum seekers and refugees, exclusively of sub-Saharan origins and French speaking. These sessions addressed the following themes: Contraception, sexuality and sexual rights, female cancers, STIs / AIDS and GBV. These sessions were led by ATSR staff in Medenine and peer educators in Tunis and Sfax.

In addition, ATSR organized a training session for peer educators on Sexual and Reproductive Health for 7 male refugee’s Arabic speakers, of which 3 were recruited as peer educators to organize awareness sessions in their communities. We also plan to train a pool of women peer educators among the Arabic-speaking community in the coming months.

On the other hand, and in partnership with CREDIF, we organized an awareness campaign under the slogan "Equality_Mixity". This campaign was rolled out on 3 phases: Three awareness-raising workshops for 31 migrants / asylum seekers / Refugees (17 women and 14 men) on gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and access to services; and a fourth in favor of the volunteers of the By_Lhwem Association for the preparation of the field campaign. Finally, a three-day street campaign was organized in three governorates: Tunis, Ariana and Manouba; This campaign aimed to collect the perceptions of Tunisian citizens on gender-based violence against migrant, asylum seekers and refugee’s women and to sensitize them on the subject; 493 people were approached in the street (54% of them are women).