reproductive health


© UNHCR/ Sebastian Rich


Once immediate needs are taken care of, Cornier then works to scale up services depending on the ongoing priorities of people in a refugee camp setting. Based in Kinshasa, she covers 10 countries, including Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic (CAR)), Burundi, Rwanda and Chad, all of which have experienced conflicts causing people to flee their homes.


What’s not in her job description, but just as critical, is Cornier’s commitment to giving back power and dignity to all refugees. “Tomorrow, any one of us could be a refugee and we would be the same person as we were today,” she says. “We are all people and it’s extremely important to give back responsibility and dignity. In my instance that means that they take back their lives into their own hands. Tey may be refugees but they are still parents or children or adolescents.”


Adolescent reproductive health is an area she spends a lot of her time on, concerned that young people are sometimes


14 / UNHCR


overlooked in refugee populations. “Tey are no longer babies who can die of malnutrition,” she explains. “Tey are in the middle, pre-teens or teens and they have the most to lose.” Adolescence is by definition a time of great change and adding a catastrophic loss or trauma makes a challenging transition to adulthood even more so. “Tey can be in real danger if left alone,” she says, vulnerable to exploitation and risky behaviours that can drastically affect their future.


Cornier makes sure that the teens have access to health services, including birth control, sexual abuse treatment and counselling. Tat can be challenging as some health care workers can be judgmental, discouraging adolescents to come forward. “We don’t want to increase the gaps between parents and kids,” she says. “We discuss things a lot, often working through peer programs and talking mainly with mothers.” What she doesn’t do, Cornier emphasizes, is bring solutions. “I ask people what are their issues and what they feel they can do about it,” she says. “I find it’s extremely


TO SEE A WOMAN DIE IN CHILDBIRTH IS SOMETHING YOU NEVER GET USED TO.


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