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UNICEF in Appeal for Central American Children

Friday, 13 November 1998: UNICEF appealed today for help in financing the first phase of an emergency operation to help Central American children and families left destitute by Hurricane Mitch.

UNICEF warned that without urgent provision of clean safe water, basic hygiene and essential drugs, killer diseases like cholera, dysentery, malaria, and measles could soon threaten the lives of thousands of children.

"Unless we move quickly, what is already a catastrophic regional disaster could become even worse," said UNICEF's Executive Director Carol Bellamy.

Ms. Bellamy spoke as UNICEF and other agencies worked to step up the delivery of humanitarian aid, rushing clean water, essential drugs, medicines, blankets and oral rehydration salts to communities devastated by flooding and mudslides.

The Executive Director said at least $3.7 million was needed by UNICEF over the next 30 days to address the most urgent needs of children and women. Without speedy help, she said, survivors could fall prey to disease and starvation. Almost all are from the poorest sectors of society, for which housing conditions were unhealthy long before the hurricane struck.

Ms. Bellamy said UNICEF was focusing on essential health and survival measures, water supply and sanitation, public-health education, re-establishment of networks of community workers, psychosocial rehabilitation of traumatized children, logistical support and continuing assessment.

In Honduras, one of the most devastated countries, the Government has asked UNICEF to play a significant role in rehabilitating the water supply system.

In a rapid assessment conducted jointly with the Honduran Government, UNICEF found that an estimated 4.5 million people out of a population of 6 million have no access to safe water -- and that $300 million will be needed if the water supply system country wide is to be fully restored.

UNICEF has already moved to provide emergency stop-gap supplies, distributing 126 water tanks of 400 gallons each to over 400 shelters serving women and children in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and the large city of San Pedro Sula. The agency also provided essential drugs, blankets, hygiene items, food, clean water and logistical support for medical teams to assist thousands of children and women in shelters in the north and south of the country.

The storm left tens of thousands of homeless in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Costa Rica and Belize have also required urgent emergency assistance.

Earlier this week, UNICEF dispatched an urgent airlift of 500,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts to Nicaragua from its warehouse in Copenhagen, Denmark. The rehydration kits, used to treat diarrhoea, are being distributed to displaced children and families who have taken shelter in schools, churches and other sites.

UNICEF also provided additional medical supplies to Nicaragua, and is working with the Ministry of Health to prepare public-information materials on education and hygiene.

In El Salvador, where schools have been closed because of damaged school buildings and a lack of transportation, UNICEF has mobilised young adults who are part of the growing network known as the "Municipal Defenders of Children" to visit shelters, provide assessments and help distribute relief supplies.

"There is little doubt that child health, the reopening of schools, the restoration of community water-supply systems, child protection and psychosocial rehabilitation of children traumatized by this devastating crisis will continue to be the major focus of UNICEF's activities in the months to come," Ms. Bellamy said.

The hurricane is one of the worst natural disasters to hit the region in the 20th century. Officials say the death toll is unlikely to be known with accuracy for months.

Once a more complete assessment of the situation of children is made, UNICEF will participate in a UN consolidated appeal for longer-term emergency and rehabilitation needs.

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