Save the Children: Millions of Children Still Not Receiving Aid a Month After Pakistan Floods Began

[Turborama]

http://www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2010/pakistan-floods-one-month-on.html">Millions of Children Still Not Receiving Aid a Month After Pakistan Floods Began, Save the Children Reports

WESPORT, Conn. — A month since the onset of the floods in Pakistan, 2.3 million children under the age of 5 have not been reached with critical and lifesaving assistance, Save the Children reports today.

The agency — which has provided assistance to more than 305,000 children and adults over the last four weeks — warns that only 10 percent of people who have fled their homes have received aid. The massive scale of the crisis and the destruction of roads and bridges have complicated efforts. Filthy floodwaters still cover around one-fifth of the country. In some areas, villages are effectively islands with marooned families forced to wade through high water to reach food distribution centers as aid trucks are unable to reach them.

"The flooding has left millions of people, many of them children, with little but the clothes on their back. Impoverished families have become destitute and need assistance to feed, shelter and clothe their children," said Sonia Khush, Save the Children's emergency preparedness and response director, from Pakistan. "This has become a child-survival crisis, where the lack of food, water, shelter and health care could have dire consequences. We are very concerned that malnutrition rates could increase and working to ensure that treatable ailments, like diarrhea, do not take a costly toll. And we are encouraging women to exclusively breastfeed their young children, to better nourish and protect them."

More than 17.6 million people in Pakistan have been displaced. The agency estimates that 3.5 million girls and boys are at high risk of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery and typhoid. In addition, an estimated 100,000 women are due to give birth in the next month in the flood zone.

"Families are living in squalid conditions, among livestock in makeshift camps alongside busy roads, or sleeping with five or six other families in one school room," said Khush. "Conditions are extremely hazardous for all children in the flood zone, particularly infants and young children. We are working as hard as we can and as fast as we can to reach children in desperate need of food, shelter and medical care. But as the waters recede, families will still need all of our support. This crisis will get dramatically worse before it can begin to improve. And greater funding is needed if we are to reach the vast number of children affected by this disaster."

Save the Children, which has worked in Pakistan for more than three decades, has reached over 305,000 people with emergency medical care and distribution of tents, shelter kits, hygiene kits, food and other supplies. Save the Children is working in all four provinces, in coordination with UN clusters and in partnership with national, provincial and district administrations, to provide assistance to flood-affected families.

For more information on Save the Children's response in Pakistan and for ways to help, please visit our http://www.savethechildren.org/emergencies/asia/pakistan-floods-2010/">Pakistan Flood Emergency page.

http://www.savethechildren.org/about/financial.html?source=sp_ft_financial&WT.mc_id=1109_sp_ft_financial">

ETA For more on what's been going on in Pakistan, check out my journal - even the archives are quite recent: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Turborama

[Turborama]

1. 'Triple threat' looms over Pakistan: Head of UNICEF - "In many ways it is a children's emergency"

'Triple threat' looms over Pakistan

Aid workers warn of "second wave of death" as crisis "widens and deepens" across the flood-ravaged country.


As floodwater in Pakistan displaces tens of thousands of people from their homes every day, officials warn
that millions are at risk from food shortages and disease, adding to the humanitarian crisis (AFP)

The World Food Programme has warned that flood-ravaged Pakistan faces a "triple threat" after the worst disaster in the country's history left eight million people dependent on aid to survive.

Torrential rains triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south over the past month, engulfing a fifth of the country and affecting 17 million of Pakistan's 167 million people.

SPECIAL COVERAGE
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/floodofmisery/">

The floods have washed away huge swathes of the rich farmland on which the country's struggling economy depends.

"There is a triple threat unfolding as this crisis widens and deepens," Josette Sheeran, the World Food Programme chief, said at a conference with other United Nations officials in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, after visiting flooded areas on Wednesday. "People have lost seeds, crops and their incomes, leaving them vulnerable to hunger, homelessness and desperation - the situation is extremely critical," she said.

Anthony Lake, the head of Unicef, the UN children's fund, said that the disaster had affected nearly 8.6 million children. "In many ways, it is a children's emergency. There is also a potential second wave of death from waterborne diseases.This is likely to get much worse if we can't reach people with clean water, adequate nutrition, sanitation and vaccination," he said.

Full article: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/20109110425541845.html

[ihavenobias]

4. Kick n/t

[ConsAreLiars]

2. Checked out its rating on a few sites.

Quite high and credible, despite the scammy ads I'd seen.

[Turborama]

3. If you click on the pie chart image in the OP, they give a full and transparent financial audit...

Here's a direct link for convenience: http://www.savethechildren.org/about/financial.html?WT.mc_id=1109_sp_ft_financial">How We Use Our Funds - 90% on Program Services

What do you mean by, "scammy ads"?

[OhioChick]

5. K&R n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

6. K&R. The situation here is overwhelming and extremely dire...

Without clean water and nonexistent medical care, diseases are rampant. As always, the children are the most vulnerable. I finally saw a report on this, last night on CNN. What few hospitals still exist are filthy and overwhelmed. They said that water-bourne diseases like cholera could wipe out an entire generation here. WTF?! We can do something about this. We need to use our resources here and not on war... ;(

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Here's the report I (finally) saw on CNN last night. Heartwrenching... ;(

Video: In Pakistan, children fall prey to deadly water
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/01/video-in-pakistan-children-fall-prey-to-deadly-water/

[Turborama]

8. That is a heartbreaking report!

:cry:

Did you see the half hour special Sanjay Gupta did last weekend? If not, I posted a clip from it and a link to the whole thing in the videos forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x500531

[Rhiannon12866]

9. No I did not... The one I posted was the first I'd seen...

I was surprised and pleased to see that Sanjay Gupta was actually there, hope it means that they're serious about reporting on this. I usually have MSNBC on during the week, but on weekends they tend to be news-free x( so I change to CNN. Have Fareed Zakaria on now and he tends to report on international stories that others do not... :)

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out. The report on the child probably deserves its own thread... ;(