Responding To Emergencies

Haiti : Race against time

The International Save the Children Alliance has deployed an emergency response team in Haiti to help staff already on the ground in getting earthquake relief to children and families in extreme need.

On January 12, an earthquake leveled much of Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince and damaged surrounding communities. With large swaths of the city in ruins and a death toll feared to be in excess of 100,000 lives, the disaster is the worst in modern Haitian history. While a massive international relief and recovery operation is under way, the situation for children and families affected by the quake remains dire.

The Impact on Children: Children are always among the most vulnerable during emergencies. The earthquake has forced untold numbers of families whose homes were damaged or destroyed into the streets and makeshift “camps” in open areas. Needs of children and families are enormous in all respects: food and water, shelter, medical care and basic supplies. Many people are trying to buy food with the cash they have left, but this seems to be running out. Most families are eating one meal a day and Save the Children is concerned that small children are not getting food throughout the day. The threat of disease and illness is also constant for children. They are also at risk of family separation and abuse and exploitation, as well as psychosocial distress. While the Haitian people are extremely resilient and are exhibiting patience and generosity, their circumstances remain difficult.

Save the Children’s Response: Save the Children has worked in Haiti continuously since 1978 and launches immediate relief for children affected by the island’s frequent natural disasters. Local staff members in Port-au-Prince have been joined by our international disaster response experts and are working around the clock and in coordination with the Haitian government, donors, non-governmental organizations and communities to provide relief on a scale similar to our response to the epic Asia tsunami of 2004. Work is taking place in Port-au-Prince and in nearby communities.

Recent Updates from the field:

Food

• The World Food Program (WFP) will be providing Save the Children with high-energy biscuits for distribution. Save the Children is also coordinating a longer-term strategy with WFP for food distribution.

• On January 16, Save the Children distributed food for 2,000 people at the L’Hopital de l’Espoire (Hope Hospital), that focuses on pediatric medicine and helps support two orphanages.

Water

• Large quantities of bottled water have been received for distribution with our hygiene kits.

• Save the Children has trained 24 staff in water and sanitation responses and healthy hygiene promotion. Beginning January 22, teams will travel to 15 informal settlements in Port-au-Prince to begin constructing latrine and water points and encourage proper hygiene.

• Based on assessments in two other locations, Save the Children plans to deliver clean water to residents by tank trucks, construct latrines to prevent water contamination, distribute hygiene kits and promote proper hygiene to prevent the spread of diseases.

Shelter and Non-Food Relief Items

• 2,500 household kits are being procured at Save the Children’s office in the Dominican Republic for rapid delivery by truck to Port-au-Prince.

• 1,000 family-size tents are being shipped by Save the Children from China, where the agency responded to that nation’s earthquake in 2008.

• 25,000 sheets of plastic for temporary shelter have arrived at Save the Children’s base in Miami.

• 1,000 family hygiene kits (including soaps, rubbing alcohol, baby wipes, diapers, hand sanitizers and bleach), arrived in Port-au-Prince on January 19.

Emergency Health Care

• Our mobile health clinic in Leogane continues to see approximately 100 patients daily. The unit is staffed by 14 expatriate doctors.

• On January 19, 16.5 tons of medical supplies donated to the agency by AmeriCares were distributed in Leogane and at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince.

• Medical supplies were distributed by Save the Children’s response team and a partner agency to 14 hospitals and clinics throughout the Port-au-Prince region.

Child Protection

• Several Child Friendly Spaces are now open in temporary shelters so that children can take part in structured, supportive activities to help them recover from what they’ve experienced. Kits for 77 other spaces are in Port-au-Prince; Save the Children plans to open hundreds of these essential sites for children.

• Save the Children has trained 50 social workers in providing psychosocial support to children, activities at our Child Friendly Spaces and child protection policies.

• Three Child Friendly Spaces are scheduled to open January 22 in the community of Jacmel.

• The agency has been requested by the UN to coordinate the reunification of separated children with their families. We are beginning to collect information and reports of separated and unaccompanied children for follow-up action.

Education

• Save the Children will be among the lead agencies to rapidly restore education for children to provide them with a structured, secure environment.

Save the Children staff also continues to assess conditions in damaged communities west of Port-au-Prince and initiate relief operations and local partnerships. Our staff in the Dominican Republic is also alert to the possibility of relief that may be needed for Haitian earthquake victims who have moved to the border area.

The agency has committed to a five-year “build back better” initiative, which will take us from the relief and recovery phase to working with families to rebuild their communities. The strategy is similar to the five-year rebuilding initiative Save the Children launched in Aceh Province, Indonesia following the epic December 2004 tsunami.

Save the Children, India on behalf of its global counterparts urges you to support the emergency appeal for funds by CLICKING HERE

Updates and Press Releases

• Save the Children to Distribute Food Rations to 200,000 Children and Families in Haiti in Partnership with 1 February 2010

• Save the Children's statement to the Human Rights Council on the recovery process in Haiti 29 January 2010

• Two Weeks after Quake, Save the Children Steps Up Efforts to Provide Lifesaving Supplies to Children 27 January 2010

• Radio Outreach Program in Haiti to Promote Newborn, Infant Health 25 January 2010

• Mobile Health Teams and Multiple Clinics Set Up to Prevent Disease Outbreaks 23 January 2010
  

• Haiti Earthquake Adoption Statement

• Save the Children Working Rapidly to Re-Establish Schools as an Urgent Part of the Humanitarian Response 21 January 2010

• New aftershock hits Haiti (20 January 2010)

• Save the Children Races to Reach Children in Haiti’s Earthquake Zone, Warns of Increasing Threats (19 January 2010)

• Save the Children Creating Long-Term Plan to “Build Back Better” in Haiti; Delivering Immediate Relief Now (19 January 2010)

• Angelo's Story (19th January 2010)

• Save the Children USA CEO Arrives in Haiti with UN Secretary General (18 January 2010)

• Save the Children Says Health Risks on the Rise for Haiti’s Youngest and Most Vulnerable Children (17 January 2010)

• Save the Children Gives Medical Aid to Miracle Baby Recovered in Haiti; Agency Continues to Provide Relief Save the Children Races to Get Relief to Families in Desperate Need; As Many as 2 Million Children Affected by Haiti Earthquake (14 January 2010)

• Save the Children Assesses Widespread Damage in Haiti, Organizes Emergency Relief for Children and Families (13 January 2010)

• Major Earthquake Hits Haiti, Save the Children Staff Working On the Ground (12 January 2010)

• Francina's story from Haiti

More on the Save the Children International Alliance response

• Read Voices from the Field, our blog with updates from Kathryn Bolles , Save the Children's Emergency Health and Nutrition Director (15 January 2010)

• Read Voices from the Field, our blog with updates from Annie Foster , Save the Children's team leader (15 January 2010)

• Read Voices from the Field, our blog, with updates from Ian Rodgers, Emergency Response Advisor (13 January 2010)

• Listen to an interview by Gareth Owen, Emergencies Director for Save the Children UK (13 January 2010)

Save the Children strongly believes that in any emergency Children are the most vulnerable to the events. Following are some of the responses carried out by Save the Children in India to safeguard the rights of these children.

South India Floods 2009

Large parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka saw the worst ever floods in the past 100 years. Heavy rainfall beginning on September 29th in the two states caused the Krishna and Tungabhadra Rivers to breach their banks, flooding the many villages along the banks of the two rivers, and in all affecting five districts in Andhra Pradesh and twelve districts in Karnataka.

Save the Children and 4 partner organizations across two states – Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have initiated a six month Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation intervention in 52 villages with the support of Save the Children Alliance and other corporate donors. We have now completed first quarter of this intervention with the following outcomes;

• 52 Child Friendly Spaces established and function in 52 villages.

• 3000 families received Hygiene Kits with Medicated Mosquito Nets.

• 13,860 Children were provided with quality Education Kits containing a school bag, books, pencils, crayons, erasers and a good water bottle

• 40 schools have been provided School Kits for quality teaching.

• 3050 families received Household Utility Kits with Tarpaulins.

• 1946 Man days through Cash for Work in Andhra Pradesh.

• 2000 families received woolen blankets in Raichur District.

• 52 Child Protection Committees functional in 52 project villages.

• 112 Project staff from 4 partner organisations are trained in Emergency concepts, Child Protection and Child Rights perspective.

Cyclone Aila, 2009

Striking the coast of West Bengal on 25 May, state authorities estimate that Cyclone Aila affected some 6.8 million people across the state, damaging or destroying over 1 million houses and killing at least 138 people.

As of September 2009, Save the Children had provided hygiene kits to more than 6,000 families and water to over 3,500 families, set up 21 Child-Friendly Spaces, provided over 47,000 hot meals to children, lactating mothers and pregnant women and dry rations for a further 2,500 households, rehabilitated 45 tube wells and a communal pond, distributed clothes to 4,200 children, education materials to more than 2,500 children, and shelter materials to 2,000 households and provided restocking assistance for 514 Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centres.

Floods, 2008

2008 saw floods on a massive scale throughout northern and eastern India. Widespread flooding in West Bengal in June was followed by the bursting of the Kosi River embankment in Bihar on 18 August, the consequences of which were declared a ‘national calamity’ by the Prime Minister. In total, over 3 million people had to leave 993 villages to seek shelter, and over 5 million people are thought to have been seriously affected. 262 deaths were officially reported, although actual numbers are believed to be higher. This was followed in September 2007 by massive monsoon flooding in Orissa, where around 4.2 million people in some 6,000 villages were badly affected.

Save the Children reached 117,000 direct beneficiaries in Bihar and Orissa, with food, nutrition, shelter, health, child protection and education support.

Kandhamal Violence, 2008

After the killing of a Hindu religious leader in Kandhamal district, Orissa, large-scale mob violence directed against Christian communities forced more than 50,000 people out of their homes and into state-run relief camps. Some 50 people are thought to have been killed in the fighting.

Save the Children responded by providing supplementary feeding for 794 children aged 6-24 months and setting up nineteen health camps and thirty child-friendly spaces.

Mautam crisis, 2008

A major rat infestation in the north-east state of Mizoram destroyed crops on a massive scale, driving thousands of people to the edge of a humanitarian crisis. The rat infestation was the result of Mautam, a cyclic ecological event that occurs every 48 years when the flowering of bamboo trees triggers an explosion in the rat population, who go on to devour food stocks and crops. In the worst-affected areas, 95% of rice crops and 75% of the cash crops were destroyed and 30,000 families were left living with acute shortages.

Save the Children provided life-saving support in the remote Saiha district, offering food and cash to the most needy and work opportunities for destitute families. We also supported the restocking of livestock and the distribution of seeds, provided support and training for ICDS centres and worked with local people to strengthen their ability to meet their own needs.

Floods, 2007

2007 saw some of the worst flash floods in recent times in Assam, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

Save the Children targeted 18,000 children and their families in all four states, ensuring food security, restoring livelihoods of the poorest, renovating schools and medical centres, providing basic healthcare, restoring rural water sources and providing training on community-led disaster risk reduction.

Earthquake, 2005

Four areas of Jammu & Kashmir were severely damaged, many people died, scores of people were displaced and livelihoods were destroyed.

Save the Children distributed food, NFIs and shelter to over 11,000 families, supported schools and ICDS centres, established safe play areas for children, and provided training on health, hygiene, child rights and protection.

Tsunami, 2004

The Asian Tsunami in 2004 devastated coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Save the Children’s emergency recovery programme continued for more than four years after the tsunami struck, focusing on shelter, education, disaster preparedness, child protection, HIV/AIDS, and early childhood care and development.

Drought, 2003

Following severe drought across India in 2003, Save the Children set up an emergency drought-relief programme in four districts in Rajasthan, reaching more than 50,000 people.

The approach included installation of water tanks, cultivation of kitchen gardens, plantation of moisture-retaining trees, establishment of community grain banks, building and training of village-level drought response committees, engagement of children through children’s groups and mobilisation of awareness-raising activities.

Conflict, 2002

Shelling from Pakistan displaced 153,000 people in six districts of Jammu & Kashmir.

Save the Children responded through community-based support for the wellbeing of children, supplementary education, hygiene and health promotion and nutritional programmes.

Earthquake, 2001

Following the Gujarat earthquake Save the Children provided relief materials to around 72,500 families and equipment, water storage tanks, stationery and furniture to health centres, dispensaries and ICDS centres.

Save the Children also worked in partnership with a network of 22 grassroots NGOs to build 24,000 semi-permanent shelters.

Super Cyclone, 1999

The 1999 Super Cyclone in Orissa was India’s deadliest storm since 1971, killing over 10,000 people as wind speeds reached as high as 260 km/h. It had a defining influence on the disaster reparedness movement in India and its anniversary, 29th October, is now marked as a national DRR day.