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Children in the Sichuan Quake Zone
Updated on 8 pm, May 10, 2009
A devastating earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale struck southwest China's Sichuan Province on 12 May, 2008. The worst-hit areas in Sichuan province include Chengdu (Dujiangyan City and Pengzhou County), Aba, Guanyuan, Mianyang and Deyang prefectures, accounting for 90% of total deaths in the province.
I. UNICEF Supplies Update:
As of April 6, 2009, UNICEF has provided about 20 million US dollars of supplies and technical support that have reached the children and their families in the earthquake-hit areas. These inculde:
- Set up 40 Child Friendly Spaces across Sichuan Province to provide long-term psychosocial support. By the end of 2008, 42,000 children have received psychosocial support services.
- A package of interventions in Education, Water and Sanitation for some 10,000 students in 39 schools affected by the earthquake in Xihe County of Gansu Province;
- 86 tons of medical supplies, 20 ambulances;
- 100 mobile toilets;
- 850 shelter tents, 4,100 sleeping bags, and 20,000 quilts;
- 1,200 school tents, 10,100 sports kits and library kits, 102 sets of prefabs;
- 50,000 clothing packages for children ;
- 78,858 packs of water purification tablets, 20 water purification units, 200 tons of disinfector and 70 collapsible water tanks;
- 62,000 sets of student kits and teacher kits;
- More supplies including health kits, lifesaving medical equipment, sports kits, books and school kits have delivered.
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II. Casualty and Impact
- As of September 25, 2008, 69,227 people dead, 374,643 injured, and 17, 923 missing
- A total of 5,335 students were dead or missing, and another 546 were left disabled, the Sichuan Provincial Government said in a news conference on May 7, 2009. This is the first official tally of students killed in the devastating eartquake.
- As of May 7, 2009, statistics from the Sichuan provincial education department showed that 3,340 schools needed to be rebuilt after the earthquake. The government has pledged to have 95 percent of the students back in school buildings, rather than tents or prefabricated structures, before the end of this year. All students should be in regular school buildings by next spring.
III. Children Affected by the Quake
- As of April 2009, 624 children are confirmed to be orphaned by the earthquake.
- It is estimated that more than 14.5 million people live in these worst affected areas. Among them, 3.4 million are children under age 18, including 742 thousand children under age 5. The total number of school age children from 6 to 17 is estimated around 2.4 million.
- According to the official statistics, there are 1.9 million children in primary and regular secondary schools in the worst-hit areas in 2006. It is estimated that at least 6898 primary and secondary school buildings may have been collapsed or damaged by this powerful earthquake. (View Data Table)
IV. UNICEF-China Country Programs in Sichuan
UNICEF China, in its Country Programme cycle 2006-2010, has been working with local government counterparts in 12 out of 21 prefectures in Sichuan province. These programs include health and nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention, basic education and gender equality, wash in school, child protection, and plan of action for children and child rights promotion. (View Data Table)
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