UPDATE: ChildFund Philippines reports that all ChildFund-participating families and children are accounted for, and damage in these communities is minimal. Our local partners have resumed normal activities and continue to monitor their respective areas and the situation of children and families.
The Philippines has been hit by its 16th typhoon this year, with Typhoon Bopha causing thousands of families to flee their homes on Mindanao island and in the Visayas. The death toll has risen to at least 238, with hundreds of people missing.
Following a government alert, more than 50,000 people evacuated their homes ahead of the storm and spent the night in emergency shelters. Having experienced the devastating Typhoon Washi only last December, there were almost 1,000 evacuation centres established prior to Bopha’s landfall.
ChildFund Philippines has deployed an emergency response team to assess the situation and local partners are monitoring their respective areas. We will provide further updates as soon as more information comes to hand.
ChildFund Australia CEO Nigel Spence says: “It is devastating to see these communities being uprooted yet again and our hearts go out to the children and families who are affected. ChildFund stands ready to assist as we did following Typhoon Washi and the floods in August.
“The early action taken to evacuate people very likely saved many lives and shows the value of being prepared for disasters such as this. This is why organisations like ChildFund are increasingly working with communities on disaster risk reduction efforts.
“We ask our supporters who sponsor in the Philippines to remain patient – we are not yet able to provide information about communities in which sponsored children reside but will provide more details as they come to hand.”
Following Typhoon Washi, ChildFund assisted children and families in some of the worst-affected areas of Mindanao for six months until June 2012. Thanks to donations raised through Project Humanity, ChildFund was able to deliver food and non-food items to 2,000 families living in evacuation centres and relocation camps, including rice, dried fish, soap, blankets, nappies and school supplies.
ChildFund also established 35 child-centred spaces in the evacuation centres and camps, and with the help of over 200 youth and parent volunteers from the community, provided ‘normalising activities’ for children such as group play, games, art, song and dance. Over 6,000 children benefited from these activities.
In August, the Philippines was again hit by typhoons and flooding, with a State of Emergency declared in parts of the country – mainly in and around the capital, Manila. ChildFund provided over 1,200 affected families with food and safe drinking water, and over 2,200 families with items such as mats, blankets, first aid kits, hygiene kits and roof repair materials. In addition, 573 children who lost school materials in the floods were given new school supplies and 392 children received new shoes and uniforms.
Ongoing work includes a livelihood recovery program to help families get back on their feet, and play and learning activities for children in 26 child-centred spaces. Thank you to our Project Humanity partners and those who generously donated to our Philippines Flood Emergency Appeal for making this possible.
Photo: Residents retrieve their belongings after their house was destroyed by a fallen tree caused by Typhoon Bopha in Cagayan de Oro City (Reuters/Stringer, courtesy the Thomson Reuters Foundation – AlertNet)
A strong earthquake that struck Myanmar on 11 November has left thousands of children and families without homes, schools and businesses. The 6.8-magnitude quake has affected over a dozen areas, of which Shwebo district in Sagaing region is reported to be among the worst hit.
ChildFund has recently started working in Myanmar and will be assisting children and families in Shwebo district through a local partner. More than 10,000 people in this area have been affected by the earthquake.
“The main aim of our response is to enable children in Shwebo district to continue their education while their schools are being rebuilt, and to provide emergency food rations to families,” says ChildFund’s Mandalay program coordinator, Thiha Sane.
“ChildFund will support our local partner to set up temporary ”tent schools’ and provide school supplies and books for the children. Many families have lost their businesses too, so we will distribute daily food rations to affected families for one month.”
ChildFund is in the process of setting up an office in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), which is experiencing significant change since the military relinquished power to a newly elected government last year. Initially, ChildFund will be working through local partners, providing funding and technical support to projects in line with our child-centred development focus.
“We’ll be working in Yangon and Mandalay at the start – these are big cities with some sub-urban slum areas – and also in Shwebo, a more rural district,” explains ChildFund’s Myanmar program coordinator Win May Htway. “We are assessing different partners we can work with and doing child protection workshops with them, so that they have their child protection policy in place when they start working with us.”
Political isolation has left Myanmar the poorest country in South-East Asia, with almost a third of its population estimated to be living in poverty. In 2011 it ranked 149th out of 187 states in the Human Development Index, lagging behind all of its ASEAN neighbours in indicators for poverty, health and education.
For the country’s 18 million children, the challenges are immense. Despite recent increases in government spending on healthcare and education, most villages lack basic healthcare and only half of all children complete primary school. Acute malnutrition is a serious concern with 40 per cent of children suffering from stunting and 10 per cent affected by wasting. One in 10 children in Myanmar dies before their fifth birthday.
ChildFund Australia CEO Nigel Spence says: “While it is devastating to see the level of poverty for children in Myanmar, it is encouraging to see the country opening up and creating new opportunities for its people. By improving education and healthcare, we can make significant strides in bettering the lives of Myanmar’s most vulnerable children and families. ChildFund looks forward to working with our local partners and the government to achieve this.
“We would also like to thank our Project Humanity partners whose ongoing support enables us to respond quickly to emergencies like the earthquake in Myanmar. It is thanks to your wonderful generosity that we can assist children and families in their time of need. Others who wish to support our work in Myanmar can make a donation, although we are not able to offer child sponsorship at this time.”
Join Project Humanity to help communities in times of crisis here.
Photo: Children and families in Shwebo district are living in tents while their homes, schools and businesses are rebuilt.
