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Expanding Help to More Child Survivors of Earthquake in Northern Pakistan
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Save the Children has sent more than 75 truckloads of supplies and has begun distributing food to more than 187,000 children and families in northern Pakistan.
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Save the Children is addressing the immediate health, shelter and nutrition needs of thousands of earthquake-affected people while planning additional basic health, psychosocial, education and livelihood activities to address long-term recovery in the region.
Save the Children this week has begun has begun distributing food to 187,000 earthquake survivors—many of whom are children—in the North-West Frontier Province districts of Abbottabad, Batagram and Mansehra.
In addition, the agency has sent more than 75 truckloads of relief supplies including 3,500 tents, nearly 11,000 blankets and more than 2,200 family food packages to areas hardest hit by the earthquake and has helped set up a tented field hospital in Batagram, which includes a special ward for children and another for women.
With the death toll now surpassing 73,000 – and the number of injured close to 70,000 – Save the Children has called on the United States government to mobilize more international support to avoid “a catastrophe to children of unimaginable proportions” now unfolding in the remote mountainous regions of northern Pakistan.
“The children who managed to survive one of the deadliest earthquakes in history face imminent health threats, which increase with every night they sleep out in the cold,” said Charles MacCormack, President and CEO of Save the Children, based in Westport, CT. “Even now, doctors in the field are seeing more and more cases of acute respiratory infection and pneumonia in children—both of which are killers if not treated properly.
“Every American cares deeply about the fate of these children, and we should all be proud that the United States responded very promptly to this tragedy, but much more still needs to be done to save the lives of thousands of surviving children and their families,” he said.
The immediate priority is to ensure that survivors receive blankets, shelter materials and health care, whether they live in remote areas or have moved to camps, according to MacCormack.
“There is a window of opportunity open for the next few weeks, before heavy winter sets in, to work with communities—and work creatively—to provide shelter for the approximately 3 million people now living outside.”
MacCormack has joined leaders of other international aid organizations in urging governments to provide more military tents and blankets, as well as additional funding to aggressively continue distributions and other assistance to the earthquake-affected population.
Meanwhile, scores of Save the Children aid workers continue to provide blankets, tents, food, health care, psychosocial support and other essentials to children and families who survived the earthquake.
At the request of the local health authorities, Save the Children has begun helping set up and manage a 10-bed rural health center in Bana in the remote Allai Valley where children and women had limited access to health services even before the earthquake struck. And this week, Save the Children began assisting earthquake survivors from upper Allai who had moved to a camp near the Indus River.
“Children from these remote areas are extremely vulnerable—to cold, to hunger, to disease and complications from their wounds,” said Bruce Rasmussen, Save the Children’s Field Office Director in Pakistan. “Their situation before the earthquake was difficult, and now they face further life-threatening conditions. We need to provide care to children and mothers through well-managed health facilities as well as through outreach services that ensure proper immunization and other preventive measures. Save the Children is committed to ongoing health, education and other services that bring lasting change to children in need.”
To inject some sense of normalcy into the lives of children who survived the earthquake, Save the Children is setting up supervised safe play areas where children can engage in organized games and other activities. Save the Children plans to set up as many as 100 safe play areas with each area serving up to 100 children. Following the establishment of these areas, Save the Children will commence establishment of temporary schools.
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