El Salvador - GFDRR
El Salvador - GFDRR
El Salvador - GFDRR
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
III. CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES | 97<br />
TABLE 39. PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS<br />
IN THE AFFECTED DEPARTMENTS<br />
Departments<br />
Percentage<br />
La Libertad 32.6<br />
San <strong>Salvador</strong> 36.2<br />
Cuscatlán 34.8<br />
La Paz 35.0<br />
San Vicente 38.2<br />
Source: Population and Housing Census, 2007, DIGESTYC.<br />
To this backdrop of the socioeconomic status of women living in disaster conditions, the high percentage<br />
of teenage mothers should be added; this percentage may be inferred if one remembers that the<br />
proportion of births among females between the ages of 10 and 19 is around 30% of the total among<br />
women of reproductive age.<br />
Another consequence of the disasters that directly affects women is the increased work that falls on<br />
them (caring for children, the ill and the elderly, and work to keep households and shelters operating),<br />
which is not remunerated by any institution. This increase is added, for example, to the time that women<br />
and girls must spend in their daily lives, especially in rural areas, carrying water for family needs (it has<br />
been observed that those households that lack water services spend an average 9% of their productive<br />
time collecting water, and that the population living in extreme poverty spends even more time collecting<br />
water, up to 14% of its productive time). Water coverage in homes of affected municipalities can illustrate<br />
this situation.<br />
To reveal the disaster’s impact on women and the economic contribution they make to society without<br />
receiving payment for such work, it is useful to conduct a monetary assessment of the increase in women’s<br />
work as a result of the disaster. Considering the percentage of women from age 15 to over age 50 in<br />
houses totally or partially destroyed in the affected municipalities, the calculation of their work shows a total<br />
of nearly US$3.5 million. A three-month period of abnormal living conditions, five more hours per day<br />
and an hourly salary equivalent to that of community, social and health services have been considered.<br />
From November 16 to 25, 2009 there was a drastic reduction in the number of women and girls in<br />
shelters. On the former date the number was 7,151, and on the latter date 2,663. No general survey<br />
has been conducted on safety conditions and the coverage of needs of women and girls in shelters; this<br />
should constitute a lesson learned for future events since women and girls have specific requirements for<br />
better coping with these dramatic situations (separate bathrooms for each sex; sanitary napkins and underwear<br />
to maintain hygiene; good lighting in service areas to avoid sexual aggression, etc.).