"Families have lost their homes, livestock, crops, access to work and food and, in many cases, clean water and sanitation. Daily life is a struggle, and thousands of children are at risk," said Ned Olney, vice president for Save the Children's global humanitarian response. "We are working to get water treatment plants up and running so that a bad situation does not get much worse through the spread of disease."

In addition to deploying water-treatment plants, Save the Children has directly reached more than 17,000 people with safe drinking water and food. A further 6,000 families have been provided with non-food item (NFI) kits. Our staff have established 87 Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) which are providing support and protection to over 4,500 children. The agency has also repaired 172 tubewells and built 38 new ones to provide safe water. A total of 4.4 million liters of drinking water have been distributed to date.

People in both countries have sought shelter on higher ground, in school buildings, government offices and cyclone shelters. In India, 400,000 people were reported marooned, and a regional official said stormy conditions and turbulent rivers prevented the initial delivery of assistance.

Save the Children needs your support to help meet the most critical needs of children and families in the Cyclone Aila. Your donation will help provide drinking water, food distribution and other necessities.

Save the Children has been working in Bangladesh since 1972 and began working in India prior to independence. The agency, which implements disaster risk-reduction programs in addition to conducting emergency relief efforts around the world and in the United States, also provided relief and assisted with recovery efforts after Cyclone Sidr swept through Bangladesh in November 2007.