Testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Mark Shriver Vice President and Managing Directorof U.S. Programs Save the Children July 27, 2006 Mark Shriver, Vice President and Managing Director of U.S. Programs, Save the Children  Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Mark Shriver and I serve as Vice President and Managing Director for U.S. Programs at Save the Children. I want to thank you for this opportunity to present testimony for the record on the unique needs of children in disasters and how the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (hence the Stafford Act) can be strengthened to address these needs. The effects of Hurricane Katrina have been widespread and long-lasting, directly affecting 1.5 million people and leaving thousands of individuals without homes. While all victims of the hurricane have faced great difficulties in recovering from the disaster, none have been as vulnerable as children. In the immediate aftermath, more than 1,000 schools were closed, preventing over 372,000 children from attending school. More than 400,000 children under the age of five live in or were evacuated from areas that were declared disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and 5,192 children were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) as missing or displaced. Many children are still living in transitional housing camps nine months after the devastation began. Recognizing this unacceptable situation, Senators Thad Cochran and Mary Landrieu introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 94 expressing the sense of Congress that the needs of children affected by major disasters are unique and should be given special consideration in disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities and that FEMA should consult with appropriate child-focused non-governmental organizations with experience in this area. I have attached a copy of the Resolution to my testimony. Within days of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, Save the Children staff members were on the ground. Our staff came from having recently managed our emergency programs for children in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami and in conflict areas in Sudan's West Darfur State and Iraq. Our first action was to distribute "safe spaces" kits including educational and recreational supplies for children in shelters in Baton Rouge and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This initial assistance was followed by organizing emergency child care and support for the re-opening of schools, afterschool programs and child care centers. Save the Children forged strong relationships with State education officials, universities and local community organizations in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi – relationships that helped us leverage our resources and extend our reach to young survivors and served as the foundation for our presence in these States. To date our recovery work includes: Our Safe and Protective Communities Project, through which we are working to protect children's well-being in transitional housing communities based on an assessment of conditions and needs in 20 communities Save the Children staff visited between February and April. We are partnering with FEMA to pilot the initiative at the Diamond Group site in Plaquemines Parish Louisiana. A partnership with Chevron USA and the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University to rebuild the child care infrastructure in Harrison and Hancock counties by restoring and enhancing the quality of 33 licensed child care centers. We project that over 2,500 child care slots will be made available in Harrison County alone – a vital resource for working families who require child care in order to return to work and those in temporary accommodations whose children need a daily respite from such uncertain surroundings. Creation of hurricane-preparedness activities for children and parents in addition to our financial support for summer camp activities for 13,000 children. The children's module assists youngsters in producing a child-friendly evacuation kit. For parents, we provide information on how to help children feel safe, how to create a family disaster plan, tips for packing an emergency kit and how to manage their own stress. A structured, school-based psychosocial support program that over 10,000 children have completed and for which we have trained over 1,000 adults. Focusing on children's need for safety and trust, the program seeks to normalize reactions to abnormal circumstances through children's participation in sessions that use consistent, structured play and expressive activities to rebuild a sense of safety and control. A "care for caregiver" program that has helped over 450 teachers and child care providers deal with their own losses. Through our work responding to Hurricane Katrina in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, we noted the following shortcomings: Federal, state, and local government emergency management professionals lack a thorough understanding of the unique needs of children that need to be considered in disaster management programs. Few, if any, emergency operations plans account for children's physical, emotional and psychological needs in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Existing legislative constraints on Federal disaster response and recovery aid programs restrict disaster officials from responding to the specific needs of children in a disaster. While FEMA relief programs fund temporary housing and the rebuilding of schools and other community infrastructure crucial for serving children, FEMA cannot fund recreational and educational programming for children in the transitional housing camps nor can FEMA fund afterschool and summer camp programs for children. These types of programming provide invaluable help to children and their families in the recovery process. FEMA funds temporary housing for individuals and families whose homes have been destroyed. For many families impacted by Katrina that means a travel trailer in a transitional housing camp. Under the Stafford Act, FEMA is responsible for securing the land for the camp, securing and installing the trailers, and camp management. Our assessment of the camps identified significant problems with the siting and the design of the camps that put already vulnerable children at greater risks, with a lack of communal space for families in the camp and we found few programs available that focused on the educational and recreational needs of children. The majority of child care providers in Harrison and Hancock counties in Mississippi do not qualify for disaster relief funding from FEMA's Public Assistance program and either do not qualify for disaster loans from the Small Business Administration, or are reluctant to take on additional debt. In almost all cases, their insurance money, if it came at all, was not sufficient to return their child care facility to service. The availability of quality child care is a critical step in the recovery of any community from any disaster but especially one as devastating as Hurricane Katrina. Recommendations Children are extremely vulnerable during a disaster. While addressing the needs of children who have been impacted by Katrina is our immediate priority, we must take action to mitigate the impacts of future disasters on our children. We propose the following changes to the Stafford Act: Provide authority that recognizes the unique needs of children in disasters and designate the provision of child care as an essential service in the aftermath of a disaster. Provide authority under the Stafford Act that allows FEMA the flexibility to provide additional services that support children's health and welfare in delivery of temporary housing especially at temporary mobile home sites. Provide authority to allow disaster grant funding to be made available to States and local governments to fund psychosocial training for school officials, to work with child care providers to audit their facilities and take steps to reduce damage from the next disasters, and to review each facility's emergency plans to ensure the safety of their children when the next disaster strikes. In addition, we would propose that the Committee provide to FEMA and the other Federal, State and local partners that implement the programs authorized under the Stafford Act the following guidance: Emergency plans should integrate children's issues — from their basic security and well-being in temporary shelters to the continuation of their education — and should include programs that protect children and assist them through the aftermath of a crisis, into recovery and back to stable communities. The roles and responsibilities of federal, state and local government agencies, as well as local organizations, should be well-delineated. FEMA should apply internationally-accepted standards for delivery of humanitarian assistance particularly as it relates to establishing temporary housing facilities and camps. These include the SPHERE Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response and the INEE Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction. Mr. Chairman, Save the Children is ready to work closely with you, your Committee and your staff to shape a national emergency management capability that best serves the needs of children and their families. Thank you again for this opportunity to discuss the unique needs of children in disasters and what can be done through the Stafford Act to mitigate the impact of such events in the future. For more information about our work in the United States, click here. For more information about our emergency response work around the world, click here.