Save the Children Responding to Families Affected by Tropical Storm Noel
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People wash their belongings in a river after flashfloods and mudslides hit outside of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. REUTERS/Kena Betancur |
Save the Children is responding to the needs of children and their families affected by Tropical Storm Noel in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The storm slammed into the island with winds of up to 80 miles an hour and unrelenting downpours leaving thousands homeless. More than 100 people are reported dead, many of them swept away in muddy floodwaters after two rivers burst their banks and tore through the village of Villa Altagracia outside Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
Save the Children Dominican Republic program staff members are working with authorities to assess the situation in the most affected regions of the Southwest Dominican Republic, including Barahona, Pedernales and Independencia. Save the Children Dominican Director Horacio Ornes, who himself was stranded by the storm, reports that mudslides and flooding have closed off major roads connecting Santo Domingo and the affected areas, and that an estimated 60,000 people have been forced out of their homes. In the Dominican Republic, Save the Children is distributing urgently needed food and non-food supplies to families who have lost their possessions, crops and livestock due to flooding. In Haiti, Save the Children has distributed non-food items, hygiene kits, and water through local partners in the affected areas and is preparing a concept paper for child focused activities such as safe spaces.
Save the Children Haiti staff members are working with the Civil Protection Department of the Haitian Government and other agencies to assist families in the Western border region with the Dominican Republic and in the Southeast. Save the Children is distributing school kits and infant care kits in these areas, many of which also were impacted by flooding in September.
Save the Children works in more than 50 countries, including the United States, and serves more than 33 million children and 32 million others working to save and improve children's lives, including parents, community members, local organizations and government agencies.
You can help Save the Children respond to emergencies that put at great risk the survival, protection, and well-being of significant numbers of children. By contributing to the Children's Emergency Fund, you enable us to respond immediately to children and families who urgently need our help when disasters strike.
