21/11/2013 10:04
Typhoon Haiyan: children in disaster zone are vulnerable, warns Unicef
Aid workers have warned that children in the disaster zone left by typhoon Haiyan are particularly vulnerable, as they set up child-focused services to mitigate the impact, the Guardian reported.
Unicef estimates that 1.7 million children are among the 4.4 million people in the Philippines displaced by the disaster and said it was receiving reports of missing and separated children in Tacloban and Ormoc. The death toll now stands at more than 4,000.
"Children who are alone are particularly vulnerable to a range of risks including potential exploitation, abuse and even trafficking. These were pre-existing issues in the Philippines including in Tacloban and the typhoon-affected areas," said Pernille Ironside, Unicef's child protection specialist.
The agency is working on programmes to identify children and reunify families.
It has also worked with Save the Children to set up centres designed to establish a daily routine for children, give them somewhere safe to play and offer them access to counselling.
"Evidence suggests that the faster children get back into school and back into normal and regular activities, the faster they will be able to recover," said David Bloomer, Save the Children's regional adviser on child protection.
He said that women and children were typically more vulnerable in such situations, with much disaster management planning failing to take their needs into account.
Bloomer added that the first priority was creating safe spaces, not least because of the physical safety hazards facing children among the debris.
Oxfam said hundreds of schools had been destroyed. Others were being used as evacuation centres, said Bloomer, making it important to find alternative spaces.
Dr Natasha Reyes, emergency co-ordinator for Médecins sans Frontières, said the organisation was seeing children with gastrointestinal infections and diarrhoea, almost certainly from drinking dirty water.
The organisation is providing maternal and obstetric services, while Action Against Hunger said it was setting up tents in Tacloban where women could breastfeed infants and receive medical and psychological support.