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In Central America Many Children Remain at Risk Following Hurricane Stan
Westport, CT (October 17, 2005) –
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Save the Children supplies are unloaded and distributed to children and families in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan in El Salvador. |
Save the Children continues to assist thousands of children and families forced from their homes in El Salvador and Guatemala as a result of torrential rains, floods and landslides from Hurricane Stan, which officials fear may have killed more than 1,500 people in Central America.
With rains now subsiding, the governments in El Salvador and Guatemala – the two countries hardest hit by the hurricane—are still struggling to assist many rural villages in mountainous areas where mudslides have taken a heavy toll, wiping out homes, schools and churches and leaving many families homeless. In Guatemala alone, more than 120,000 people have been forced from their homes and are now living in churches, schools and other facilities set up as temporary shelters.
Torrential rains also have impacted families in Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua and destroyed thousands of acres of agriculture, including many coffee fields.
In Guatemala Save the Children has distributed more than 21 tons of food rations including rice, beans, oil, and biscuits as well as medicines, blankets and specific items for children including toys and recreational equipment to assist more than 6,000 displaced people in Santiago de Atitlan and San Lucas Toliman. Additional staff members are arriving at shelters to improve health care and create safe play areas for displaced children.
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| Young boy participates in Save the Children psycho-social program. Program helps children express emotions following the volcano eruption in El Salvador. |
In El Salvador, Save the Children is working closely with authorities to assist displaced families, with staff members providing basic necessities such as food, water, sanitary towels, diapers and children's clothes at shelters. Save the Children aid workers also are working to help children adjust to the disaster through supervised play activities.
In addition, Save the Children is assisting families in El Salvador who live near Santa Ana, the country's largest volcano, which erupted for the first time in one hundred years early Saturday morning October 1.
“The volcanic eruption has created great fear of potential further eruptions, and the government recently directed a wide-scale relocation of villagers," said Catherine Kennedy, field office director for Save the Children in El Salvador. "Families in all nearby communities have been asked to move to the shelters as a precaution, including two communities in which we work.”
Save the Children has worked in El Salvador for 20 years and in Guatemala for five years helping children and their families, with a special focus on improving children's health and education.
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