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UNICEF joins relief effort after earthquake hits populated urban areas of Peru

By Kun Li
SOURCE:http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/peru_40620.html

NEW YORK, USA, 17 August 2007 – UNICEF has joined the relief effort following a powerful earthquake that shook Peru on 15 August, killing more than 500 people, injuring over 1,600 and affecting a total of 85,000, including thousands left homeless.

Children and adolescents make up over a third of the population in the affected areas.

A resident of earthquake-stricken Ica in southern Peru holds his child amidst the rubble of their destroyed home.

The centre of the destruction was in Peru’s southern desert, in the oasis city of Ica and the nearby port of Pisco, about 200 km southeast of the capital, Lima. In Pisco, 70 per cent of homes were badly damaged or destroyed, and at least 200 people were reportedly buried in the rubble of a church where they had been attending a service. In Ica, a city of 300,000, a quarter of the buildings collapsed.

In Lima, about 150 km from the epicentre, the 8.0 magnitude earthquake caused buildings to shake and electricity to cut off in some areas. Although some homes collapsed, only one death was reported. But the furious two minutes of shaking prompted thousands of people to flee into the streets and sleep in public parks for safety.

The government rushed police, soldiers, doctors and aid to the area, but traffic was paralyzed by giant cracks and fallen power lines in and around Lima. Large boulders also blocked Peru’s Central Highway to the Andes mountains.

Need for safe water

Doctors help an injured girl at a hospital in Ica, south of Lima, after the quake that collapsed buildings and other infrastructure in Peru.

The day after the quake, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Peru Florence Bauer said in a telephone interview that although the full extent of the damage was still unclear, the response from the government was well organized.

“It is a country that is used to this kind of emergency,” said Ms. Bauer. “All the hospitals in the country, including the ones from the national army, are open to provide services to anyone who may need it.”

At the government’s request, UNICEF and other UN agencies quickly began transporting emergency relief – particularly safe-water supplies – from Panama to Lima.

“An immediate response is essential in order to prevent diarrhoea in children, which is quite frequent when entire neighbourhoods collapse, no safe water is available and sanitary conditions are very limited,” said UNICEF Representative in Peru Guido Cornale. To help protect children from water-borne diseases, UNICEF has delivered chlorine, water containers and tanks, and water-purification tablets for communities in need.

“It is a country that is used to this kind of emergency,” said Ms. Bauer. “All the hospitals in the country, including the ones from the national army, are open to provide services to anyone who may need it.”

At the government’s request, UNICEF and other UN agencies quickly began transporting emergency relief – particularly safe-water supplies – from Panama to Lima.

“An immediate response is essential in order to prevent diarrhoea in children, which is quite frequent when entire neighbourhoods collapse, no safe water is available and sanitary conditions are very limited,” said UNICEF Representative in Peru Guido Cornale. To help protect children from water-borne diseases, UNICEF has delivered chlorine, water containers and tanks, and water-purification tablets for communities in need.

In addition, 100,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts, which are used to treat diarrhoeal dehydration, were sent to Peru from Panama yesterday.

Joint UN response


A Peruvian family inspects their destroyed home after a powerful earthquake hit Ica.

UNICEF is also working with the Ministry of Education to evaluate the quake’s impact on schools. “Fortunately, when the earthquake happened the schools were all closed,” said Ms. Bauer. “Today, all children of the country are not going to school because of the emergency. We know there is a high number of schools that have been destroyed.”

UNICEF’s response is part of a joint effort by the government and the UN system in Peru. This weekend, an inter-agency team led by the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is expected to visit the affected areas. The team will work to further clarify the most pressing needs of children and families in the aftermath of the disaster, as well as longer-term prospects for recovery and rehabilitation in the earthquake zone.

Tim Ledwith contributed to this story.

UNICEF
For every child
Health, Education, Equality, Protection
ADVANCE HUMANITY

[ 本帖最後由 jessi 於 2007-8-18 16:40 編輯 ]

颖颖

好可怜啊
最近真是发生好多灾难啊

jessi

Receive two more...

Recent natural disasters in three far-flung parts of the world have killed thousands and displaced many more. In response, UNICEF and its partners are working to protect the health and well-being of children at risk

Providing aid to children and families affected by severe floods in DPR Korea

By Dan Thomas
Source: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/korea_40615.html


NEW YORK, USA, 16 August 2007 – Many children may have drowned and many more are seriously affected by severe flooding in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

According to assessments conducted by the government, the UN Country Team and other humanitarian agencies based in DPR Korea, 221 people have died, 518 have been injured and 82 are missing.

“A significant number of casualties are reported to be children,” said UNICEF’s Deputy Representative in DPR Korea, Michel Le Pechoux, adding that UNICEF is already providing assistance to help survivors of the flooding that has resulted from heavy downpours since 7 August.


People walk in a flooded street in Pyongyang, the capital of DPR Korea.

Damage to infrastructure

More than 350,000 people have seen their homes destroyed or damaged and some 88,500 families are affected by the floods, Mr. Le Pechoux said in a telephone interview today from the capital, Pyongyang, after returning from a visit to the county town of Sohung in North Hwanghae Province on 14 August.

“What we saw confirms government reports in the sense that a lot of infrastructure has been destroyed, roads washed away, bridges destroyed, telephone poles down. We saw several neighbourhoods of the county town flooded with about one metre of water, and the water had just receded. The worst flooding in some neighbourhoods was over two metres,” he said.

Farmland has also been badly affected. Reports suggest that up to 150,000 hectares of crops could have been destroyed. In some locations, people have started to harvest unripe maize before it rots. A poor harvest could lead to food shortages later in the year.

‘Deeply worrying’ food situation

"Our biggest concern is the damage caused to the crops and to infrastructure,” Mr. Le Pechoux said. “In many areas, the floods have destroyed not only entire harvests, but also roads and bridges. In Pyongyang, electricity is unreliable and is often cut off for long periods.

“From what I saw, the floods are seriously affecting the lives of women and children. In a country where the food situation is already critical, the consequences of these floods is deeply worrying," he added.

“Children are being affected at the moment mostly due to displacement of their families, having lost their homes,” Mr Le Pechoux said. “They are affected by lack of water because most of the water sources have been submerged and contaminated. They are also affected by a precarious food situation, which was already precarious before the floods and is only getting worse.”

Medical care and safe water


A swollen river in DPR Korea’s flood-affected North Hwanghae Province.

Despite the power cuts and washed-out roads, UNICEF is working with the government to provide:

    * Essential medical supplies to treat diseases that children and adults face living in flooded conditions; Mr. Le Pechoux explained that medical kits had been pre-positioned in the country for just such an emergency
    * Family water kits for 5,000 households; the kits had also been pre-positioned and will go out to families next week
    * Water-purification tablets and chlorine to help towns disinfect their water systems when the floods recede.

In the medium term, UNICEF is also planning to work with the Ministries of Health and Education to help repair health centres and schools damaged by the floods, Mr. Le Pechoux explained. Schools are currently closed for the summer holidays but will re-open in September.

Impact on children

“We didn’t get a chance to talk to displaced families but we could see some of the hardships met by both families who have had their houses damaged and the general population,” Mr. Le Pechoux said of his visit to North Hwanghae Province. “The children that I saw were going about their normal lives, but instead of playing in dry streets they were playing in 30, 40 or 50 cm of water.”

Some children seemed to be cold after being rained on for some time and from the damp conditions, he added.

Having worked in DPR Korea since 1985, UNICEF opened a permanent office there in 1997. UNICEF supplies equipment and training to the country’s doctors and nurses to ensure that children are growing and developing normally. Prevention of malnutrition is key and requires UNICEF to target both families and child-care institutions.

Contributions to UNICEF’s programme in DPR Korea are mostly used to procure essential supplies. International UNICEF staff monitor distribution of the supplies and provide valuable technical assistance.

UNICEF
For every child
Health, Education, Equality, Protection
ADVANCE HUMANITY

[ 本帖最後由 jessi 於 2007-8-18 16:05 編輯 ]

jessi

South Asia monsoon rains

Severe floods from monsoonal rains have also taken a heavy toll on children and families across a vast swath of South Asia this summer. An estimated 50 million people have been affected in the worst flooding in living memory in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

UNICEF is helping to provide flood victims with shelter and access to safe water, food, emergency medical care and basic household items. In India’s Bihar state, for example, UNICEF-supported mobile medical camps are providing treatment, measles immunization and vitamin A supplements to displaced children.

Mobile medical camps treat children and families displaced by floods in Bihar

By Anupam Srivastava
Source: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_40613.html


BIHAR, India, 16 August 2007 – At a UNICEF medical camp, Kusum, 4, has been vaccinated against measles as a part of the effort to save lives after the recent monsoon floods here.

Kusum and her family are living on a raised, 4 km stretch of embankment along with 200 other families who managed to escape when their villages were submerged in the floodwaters two weeks ago. Her family now occupies an eight-by-twelve-foot space.

Fleeing the floods and living outdoors made Kusum sick, but she was unable to receive medical attention. Kusum's father was also ill, and the nearest available health facilities were around 10 km away – a journey he felt he could not make under these difficult circumstances.


Flood survivors line up for treatment at a medical camp in Bihar state, India, where more than 300 UNICEF-supported health teams are working.

Many of the children treated at the camp had been ill for several days without getting any medical care.

Eight districts hit hardest

The Department of Disaster Management of the Government of Bihar reports that in 19 districts, 12.3 million people – including 1.5 million children under the age of five – have been badly affected by the recent flooding. A large number of them have been displaced.

The worst-affected eight districts are Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, East Champaran, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Sheohar and Khagaria. More than 6,000 villages have been inundated in these districts and 140 lives have been lost.

“In an emergency such as the floods, children are the most vulnerable,” said UNICEF Bihar Officer-in-Charge Job Zachariah. “Most children cannot swim to safety. Moreover, they easily fall prey to diseases.”

Illness strikes the vulnerable living on the embankments quite easily. They are exposed to the elements and to diseases that are borne along the receding floodwaters.


A girl is vaccinated against measles at a medical relief camp in the flood-affected Muzaffarpur District of Bihar.

Relief on several fronts

At a medical camp organized by UNICEF, Kusum has received treatment as well as immunizations and vitamin A supplements. Vitamin A is crucial to build up her immune system, a needed precaution in her precarious living situation.

As news of the medical camp spread, greater numbers of people poured in. “There is hardly a family without someone sick,” said one mother as she rushed to get her son vaccinated. In this camp serving the displaced people of five villages, 174 children have been vaccinated, and 1,300 people received treatment in a single day.

In nine of the worst-affected districts of Bihar, more than 200 mobile medical teams and 100 static teams have been put in place to attend to needs such as Kusum’s.

UNICEF is also assisting the people of Bihar on several other fronts, including the provision of water-purification tablets, fortified biscuits for the most vulnerable children and health surveillance to assess and monitor the danger of possible disease outbreaks.

As families leave the medical camps, they have to prepare for yet another day without a home. But with the treatment they have received, their children’s chances of remaining in good health are much greater.

UNICEF
For every child
Health, Education, Equality, Protection
ADVANCE HUMANITY

luv_van

thanks for sharing the sweet news

jessi

u r welcome...they need our concern, support and luv...