Saluting the Women of NATAN
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2023 - March 8, 2023
The Women of NATAN: Uplifting, Inspiring, Empowering
Today is International Women’s Day – a day dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements and advancing the empowerment of women everywhere. NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief is a nonprofit, all-volunteer aid and development organization. We celebrate women’s achievements every day, through the amazing work done by our volunteers: professionals in the fields of medical and psychosocial relief and rehabilitation. A majority of our volunteers are women. Not by design, but in practice, that’s just how it is. When disaster strikes, we step up. And the women of NATAN lead the way.
Uplifting, Inspiring, Empowering: One of the missions of International Women’s Day is to shine a spotlight on activity uplifting and inspiring women to pursue goals without bias or barrier. NATAN’s operations worldwide are all about empowerment and building community resilience. Our mission is to help people rebuild their lives with dignity following natural or man-made disaster. In so many of our operations, women lead the way. Here are just a few examples:
In our Ukraine Refugee Relief Operation, our medical teams healed physical wounds while our psychosocial support teams helped refugees get past the trauma, and begin to rebuild their lives. The majority of theUkrainian refugees who crossed the borders were women and children. The majority of our volunteers in this operation were also women. Not by design but de facto: Once again, the women stepped up.
Right now, we are training Ukrainian Frontline Caregivers who aid Internally Displaced Persons as well as the local residents of their communities – all of whom suffer the trauma and disruption of war. The caregivers we train are women – social workers and educators. The families they help in their villages are led by women. The colleagues they pass the training on are also mainly women: fellow social workers and teachers.
Nepal: Our women’s health initiatives in the Sindhuli District of Nepal NATAN continues to build community resilience, fight gender-based violence and save lives through reproductive health training. NATAN professionals have been making life-saving changes in this region since 2015. The majority of our training course participants are women – local health workers, community volunteers and village midwives. The majority of our health and psychosocial trainers are also women.
Thanks to the Women of NATAN! Take a look at our social media posts, operation summaries and the stories on our website, and you’ll see the power of women shining through our team photos. MDs, Nurses, Paramedics, Social Workers, Educators and other professionals – all of our volunteers take time out from their demanding daily lives. They put their jobs and families on hold as they rush to join our field operations when disaster strikes. These are the women of NATAN. We salute you – today and every day!