As a child-centred organisation, ChildFund Laos works especially with children and focuses on the issue of child protection in our work.
While we cannot stop disasters and other risks to children, we can reduce their impact by working in partnership with children and their families in Nonghet, Laos.
ChildFund uses a tool called the Participatory Capacity and Vulnerability Analysis method that enables communities to express their perceptions and understanding of hazards affecting them. This in turn informs our development work.
In Nonghet in northern Laos, two of the main risks that children identify in their lives are road safety and dog bites.
With much of the land still littered with unexploded bombs leftover from the Vietnam War, children are often forced to play near the main road, which is the route used by large trucks and buses moving between Laos and Vietnam.
As there are no footpaths, children are also forced to walk on the road to get to school. Mostly by themselves while their parents are busy working in the fields to support their families. The road is narrow and windy, leaving drivers with poor visibility. This combined with excessive speed causes many accidents.
To help reduce this hazard ChildFund working with the local community to devise solutions and is providing children in Nonghet with road safety training.
We believe that children have the right to participate in decisions that affect them so it is vital we always include input from them when designing development programs, but having children sit together to gather information about the risks that they face also has several other benefits.
We find children often have different perceptions of hazards compared to adults, so it is essential that young people are given the opportunity to be actively involved in the creation of their own community disaster risk plans.
Involving children in developing these plans also ensures young people have a greater retention of the knowledge they need to protect themselves against risks and are able to take action in the face of danger.
Using a participatory method also helps to empower young people and build their confidence by teaching them to think critically and actively about their surroundings.
ChildFund Laos believes the right tools are invaluable for helping kids to take steps to reduce the risks they face in their communities every day.
ChildFund is committed to helping families and communities recover from Typhoon Haiyan over the long term.
In many parts of the world, thoughts of November’s Typhoon Haiyan have faded, along with news headlines. But for 16 million affected Filipinos, the effects of the storm have remained constantly visible and inescapable. Three months later, ChildFund continues to assist survivors of the typhoon, which killed 6,000 people and left 1,800 missing, as well as 1.1 million homes damaged or destroyed.
In any emergency, ChildFund’s response rolls out in two parts: relief and recovery. ChildFund was one of the first organisations to provide relief such as food packs, clean water and non-food resources, as well as being the first organisation to establish Child-Centred Spaces, safe and supervised areas for children, after the storm.
Trained professionals provide psychosocial support through structured play activities to help children deal with the loss of loved ones and homes, the stress of living in evacuation centres and other traumatic events associated with the typhoon. ChildFund also has assisted families with shelter, health needs and child protection, major tasks in the aftermath of disasters because parents are often too busy to supervise their children at all times.
While basic needs like food and child protection are met during the relief phase, recovery efforts to help families and communities rebuild often take more time and funding. Restoring livelihoods and rebuilding houses and schools, along with other infrastructural needs, are paramount in the months and years after a disaster.
ChildFund, which has been in the Philippines since 1954, is providing support in the provinces of Leyte, Capiz and Northern Cebu, including one of the hardest hit cities, Tacloban. ChildFund is committed to rebuilding the lives of impacted communities and raising funds to help the people of the Philippines get back on their feet.
Since November, ChildFund has devoted many human hours and financial resources to help those affected by Typhoon Haiyan, but the communities need more help, particularly as focus shifts from the storm to other events in the world. ChildFund has committed millions of dollars for the relief phase and for recovery efforts, which include rebuilding livelihoods, strengthening community-based child protection protocols and preparing communities for future disasters.
The storm itself has passed, but the devastation in its wake remains a daily struggle for millions of Filipino families.
“There is so much work still to be done,” reports Julien Anseau, ChildFund’s Asia region communications manager, who is in the Philippines this week visiting some of the worst-hit areas. “Communities are scarred, the destruction is immense. These families need a long-term commitment to help them rebuild for the future.”
