Save the Children Provides Relief to Families in Flood-Stricken Bolivia
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Food Distribution: Food Distribution: Volunteer Eusebio Zambrana rations out food for Martha Agnu de Apaza and Lucia Zambrana. |
Save the Children continues to work to meet the on-going survival and protection needs of children in the Amazon region of Bolivia, where unusually heavy flooding has affected nearly 60,000 families.
Floodwaters have impacted lowland communities in six of Bolivia's nine regions: Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, La Paz and Chuquisaca. Families have lost homes, crops and livestock, and most are still living in temporary shelters. Clean water is also in short supply, more than 300 schools have been damaged or destroyed, and flooding could persist through the end of April.
In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, Save the Children responded to the needs of families in shelters by;
- installing 15 multi-family latrines in the camps in the city of Trinidad and a dozen 1,000-liter water tanks to provide clean water for approximately 1,260 families;
- providing food, blankets, medicine, mattresses and water cans to 300 families in Yapaquani and Puerto Villaroe; and
- establishing safe play areas for children.
To ensure families' needs are met and that they are able to return home once the flooding subsides, over the next several months we plan to:
- provide clean water for more than 20,000 people ;
- distribute hygiene kits and mosquito nets for 4,000 households ;
- continue to install latrines and showers to promote hygiene;
- work with 60 communities to re-activate agricultural livelihoods and implement safe play areas;
- provide school supplies to ensure that 10,500 children will return to school; and
- work with five municipal governments to improve emergency response capacity.
Save the Children has been in Bolivia since 1986 and implements programs focusing on health, education, hunger and malnutrition, emergency preparedness and child protection in disadvantaged, rural communities in all nine Bolivian departments.
Save the Children's ability to respond quickly to emergencies like this and other future emergencies where significant numbers of children are at risk greatly depends on our available resources. By contributing to the Children's Emergency Fund, you enable us to prepare for and respond immediately to children and families who urgently need our help when disasters strike.
