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Children Still at Risk After Philippine Mudslides
Westport, CT - (March 21, 2006)
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In the weeks after the massive landslide that buried the entire village of Guinsaugon in Southern Leyte on February 17, Save the Children is working to help approximately 900 families who remain in various evacuation centers.
Hundreds of additional families either lost their homes or have been evacuated from nearby villages following the disaster. Save the Children responded early in the crisis by giving out care packages to families and school supplies to children most affected by the landslide.
The landslide, which struck without warning, virtually wiped out the village including an elementary school where 246 children and teachers were in class. While rain has stopped during certain times of the day, the area continues to experience frequent heavy downpours, and the threat of further landslides in some areas remains. As a result, 11 other villages have been evacuated to six different evacuation centers in the town center.
Save the Children staff members are working with other humanitarian organizations and government offices in providing basic necessities including food, water and clothing at evacuation centers set up in nearby churches and schools. The agency will distribute emergency kits to families that include soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, bottled water and other essential items.
“Continued rains pose a challenge to the relief efforts,” said Rudy von Bernuth, who heads Save the Children USA’s emergency response efforts, “but the distribution of essential items for children and families affected by this disaster continues. We also remain vigilant of the risk to neighboring villages, where further mudslides or floods are possible due to the very heavy rains.”
Evacuation centers are now housing more than 3,000 individuals, about a third of whom are children. Save the Children is particularly concerned about ensuring the safety and well-being of these children and is preparing to provide special assistance to them by creating safe play areas, which will offer activities to help them cope in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
Conditions at the evacuation centers are difficult, with an inadequate number of latrines, no proper disposal of garbage and waste, inadequate supply of water for bathing and cleaning and general overcrowding.
Classes in some elementary schools have fully resumed since Monday, March 6. For those schools that are still being used as evacuation centers, tents have been set up where classes are being held. But in many surrounding areas schools remain closed, leaving some children without a daily routine or a sense of normalcy.
Leyte island, where Guinsaugon is located, experienced continuous rainfall in the weeks after the landslide. The affected area lies in a valley adjacent to a mountain. Survivors say they felt the ground shake and heard a roar just before the mudslide hit.
